For a few days on my current road trip, I stayed in the house of a friend in DC while she was away. It was an older house, born in the early fifties, same as me. The upkeep had been gradually overwhelming her…yard semi-kempt, things not working, routine maintenance long overdue. And beyond that, newer and larger houses were springing up next door as those like hers were torn down and cast aside. The contrast was inescapable. I spent several hours replacing and fixing what I could, and a good bit of time walking and driving the old neighborhood, thinking about change.

It seems to me there comes a time when old buildings have served their purpose and need to come down. The time and energy and expense of keeping them safe and functional become unreasonable. However charming they might be, entropy and money and changing tastes are their enemies.

Hard as it is to say, I think the same must be said for bodies…as well as the sentience that inhabits them. Time and technology and culture pass them by, and those left standing eventually stand alone, anachronisms surrounded by change and a rushing world too busy to see them. It could be that in the case of bodies, entropy, with its inevitable outcome, is their friend.