Introduction

You are about to read an odd book. Inside, you will meet Dave, and you will learn about his struggles with consciousness. You shouldn’t be remiss to learn that this is not a terribly exciting book; there are no car chases or love triangles (spoiler), but there is a sincere tale about struggles which we all have faced or will face. This book is personal, and so I hope it is therefore true not just to me the writer but to you the wise and noble reader. I hope inside you find comfort and wisdom, and I hope you begin to imagine what happens when we chance to love.

I also said to myself, “As for humans, God tests them so that they may see that they are like the animals. Surely the fate of human beings is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath; humans have no advantage over animals. Everything is meaningless. – Ecclesiastes 3:18-19 NIV

I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.

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For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity. – Ecclesiastes 3:18-19 KJV

“Why should I fear death? If I am, death is not. If death is, I am not. Why should I fear that which cannot exist when I do?” – Epicurus

“It is easier to build strong children than it is to repair broken men.” – Frederick Douglass

“The knowledge that nothing matters, while accurate, gets you nowhere. The planet is dying, the sun is exploding, the universe is cooling, nothing’s gonna matter. The further back you pull, the more that truth will endure. But when you zoom in on the Earth, when you zoom into a family, when you zoom into a human brain and a childhood and an experience, you see all these things that matter. We have this fleeting chance to participate in this illusion called ‘I love my girlfriend, I love my dog.’ How is that not better?” – Dan Harmon

“Loneliness does not come from having no people around you, but from being unable to communicate the things that seem important to you.” – Carl Jung