Not really my cup of tea. As a country boy, I did not grow up in a city, and over the years I have learned to value wide-open spaces and nature—and to manage quite happily with rather less luxury around me. Fewer possessions mean fewer things to worry about. I can even read the Bangkok Post unironed. This article reminded me of the series Upload, in which even the quality of the afterlife depends on how much money you can afford to spend. Personally, I will take my chances with the real thing, whenever it happens to arrive. For the time being, I am staying in a hospital VIP room, doing my best to postpone that arrival by making my future a little more reliable. Old cars need maintenance too. That is not to suggest that what La Clef offers in Bangkok is somehow fake. It is even relatively inexpensive compared with La Clef in Paris. It is a pity, though, that the Bangkok property does not have an indoor swimming pool. During the rainy season, residents may have to look elsewhere if they want to swim without first consulting the weather forecast. By the way, nobody enters the real afterlife with money in their pockets—unless the ancient Egyptians were right and somebody has thoughtfully packed a tomb for the journey. Most of us arrive empty-handed, which at least leaves our hands free. I rather like the thought that, in the end, we all start equal. Perhaps that is not entirely true for those who reincarnate immediately in somebody else’s womb. That is one of the great mysteries of life—or perhaps I should say death. The funny thing is that, after writing all this, I feel somewhat reborn myself.
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