This picture was taken in 2008 on Christmas Eve…

Circumstances have not improved for Claudia since I took that photograph.

I suppose it is perhaps for the best that I refrained that evening from reminding Claudia that we all die anyway and, therefore, her concerns were meaningless and irrelevant in the broader scheme of things.

Tout passé, tout cassé, tout lassé say the French… Everything goes away.  Everything breaks down.  Nothing is born that does not die.  Nothing begins that does not end.  There is no morning without an evening, and no silver lining without a cloud.  Empires come.  Empires go.

Is that a gloomy outlook?  Not at all; it’s just the way things work.

Perhaps I should have reminded Claudia of these simple truths after all…