The Fifth Profession

To Sarie: daughter,friend

“I don't understand you,” said Alice. “It's dreadfully confusing.”

“That's the effect of living backwards,” the Queen said kindly. “It always makes one a little giddy at first.”

“Living backwards!” Alice repeated in great astonishment. “I never heard of such a thing!”

“But there's one great advantage in it, that one's memory works both ways.”

“I'm sure mine only works one way,” Alice remarked. “I can't remember things before they happen.”

“It's a poor sort of memory that only works backward,” the Queen remarked.

– LEWISCARROLL

Through the Looking-Glass

The Way of the bodyguard is resolute acceptance of death.

– MIYAMOTOMUSASHI

a seventeenth-century samurai