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Prevailing is stalling by another name.
For some, it is stumbling, uprooted from their sleep.
For who can prevail when there is no prize, nor spoils?
We all fall asleep after that brief moment of coherence,
like those mornings when the alarm's not set and you can sense it,
and there is nothing you can do to be on time.
You do not even sense it, for you're not awake.
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Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön
Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot
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