All Souls Day

Gentle visitors, following so closely on the diurnal heels of the Feast of All Saints, this one is for the rest of us.  For, we all have souls -- or, more precisely, according to the ancient formulation are composed of body and soul.  And, as our bodies decline, we might hope that our souls incline.   For, otherwise, when our bodies -- splendid and shapely though they once might have been (present Contributor excepted) -- become defunct, our souls may have real issues.

This is the day, then, for those souls a smidge short on sanctity and little long on licentiousness.  For them -- again, according to the ancient doctrine -- a period in purgatory: a cleansing akin to an outdoor, full-body power wash in late December in a suburb of Poughkeepsie.

How sad those who reckon they have no soul, but only the body of a highly-evolved chimp -- the self merely mythologizing itself into something meaningful and special.   Then, come the day of the dead, and they spread the ashes over the koi pond in the backyard, and "ourselves" become only the partial, passing,  short-lived memories in highly-evolved chimp-others, which are truly only clusters of tiny electronic signals in their highly-evolved chimp-brains.  Depressing.

And, why not purgatory?  Surely, we all can easily imagine our personal purgatory: the possibilities are strangely tantalizing -- say, receiving a commission to write a musical using only the text the U.S. Tax Code, or a solid year listening only to the Barbara Streisand's Christmas Album, or just a full day at the DMV.

Therefore, pray for the dead and remember them, and they might return the favor, saving us from following stanza:

Unless an individual makes an election under this subsection for  the taxable year, no itemized deduction shall be allowed for the taxable year. For purposes of this subtitle, the determination of whether a deduction is allowable under this chapter shall be made without regard to the preceding sentence.

Comments

[palinurus]

That reminds me of the lyrics of that old Cole Porter tune from "Anything Goes." You know, the one: "It's Delightful, It's Delicious, It's Deductible"....

[Ned]

I have now abandoned my manuscript and score for that musical about those zany, madcap people at the IRS. Someone always steals all my best ideas.

Ever notice how many politicians started out as lawyers? The tax code is a secret conspiracy to guarantee work for other lawyers.

[Remainderman]

Ned,

Speaking as one trained in the law, agreed.