Nowadays we would regard Charlotte’s fear as silly, superstitious even. We would consider it preposterous that someone might die just because they were unhappy in their job, for these are more rational times firmly embedded in the bedrock of advanced scientific knowledge.
Science tells us now that the three cornerstones of life are the physical attributes of heartbeat, respiration, and brain function. Take those three away and the person is dead. But there are others, like me, who suspect that there’s a fourth player in the process, something vague, immeasurable, indefinable, yet vital, which we might call ‘the life force.’ And when I read of cases in which the three commonly recognised life signs are absent and yet the patient recovers and comes back to life, I tend to the suspicion that they didn’t come back to life at all. I suspect that the life force never left and so they never died.
If that’s correct, then maybe Charlotte was justified in her concern. I’m sure the Victorians knew about the trinity of heartbeat, respiration and brain function, but also recognised the existence of the life force. For all the massive advances in scientific knowledge over the past couple of centuries, maybe science has been so enslaved to an exclusively physical rationale that important factors lying outside its physical remit have been unfairly dismissed.
And the reason why this has come more to my notice lately is that I’m beginning to feel that my own life force is growing weak. If that is the case, it would be helpful to find the means by which it might be re-energised. Otherwise, I suppose I must resign myself to the tyrant time and await its will with patience.
And I do accept that this whole post might be a load of nonsense.
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