"How are you feeling today?" asked doctor Jason Posner in his usual automatic, inattentive salutation to Vivian, which is both humorous and distressing. There is a connection between Vivian Bearing and Jason Posner. Prepped for research and scholarship by Vivian herself (he took her class on the metaphysical poets) Jason possesses many of the same traits as Vivian. He is smart, ambitious, dedicated to the complexities of his medical research, and inept at human relations. …showed first 75 words of 1121 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1121 total…acceptance of your beautiful self as perfect and as good and decent; acceptance of the cancer that would ultimately extinguish my internal illumination. I would hope that at the time of my death I would have found peace and acceptance, and be surrounded by those who love me, as they would watch while their hearts still beat, and their blood still pulsed while I quietly slip away into the realm that the living, cannot comprehend.