Mortality strikes us all, doesn't it?  For many of us, however, it takes some time for this knowledge to sink in.  Examples of this are legion, but I think here of the ancient Epic of Gilgamesh, a nearly 4,000 year old document that tells a curious tale of adventure, kingship, and the end of life.

     The story turns upon two characters, Enkidu and Gilgamesh.  Enkidu is a wild man, a man of untamed desire and virlity.  Gilgamesh is a man of royalty.  Nonetheless, they bond and set out to pursue adventure together.  They encounter many things, regaling each other with their prowess.  Unfortunately, they also end up offending the gods.  As punishment, Enkidu dies.
     Distraught and confused--he had never seen death before--Gilgamesh proceeds to wander across the earth seeking the secret to eternal life.  He never finds it.  "You," the gods continually tell Gilgamesh, "will never live forever."  It is not, they add, "yours to know."
     We are no different.  But we chafe before it.  Mortality is the greatest puzzle and vexation we face.
     That's the bad news.  We are human.  It's also, however, the good news.  If there is a human being, there is a God.