how do they cram all that graham? two questions. first, if at the end of your life, you die and go someplace eternal, and you had the choice to go with one person (the person you've been with the longest, say your husband) or to go alone and take your chances, which would you choose? this is a rip off of kundera's question in immortality. he puts the question better but i can't find the quote so you get this bastardized version. basically, would you choose to live the eternal afterlife with your husband/wife or would you go off and try to see what else is out there.



so far, in my poll of the three people who have read the book (myself included), we all agree that just about everyone would take their chances. in the book, the heroine, agnes, wants to say "i go it alone" but she feels bad because her husband is in the room. so she hears herself saying "of course we want to stay together," while inside she's dying to fly solo. at the book club meeting the other night, two married women (with husbands not in attendance) said that they were hesitant to discuss this section of the book with their spouses. why? because inevitably they'd discuss it and one of them would ask "so, which would you choose?" and while that may be a fun "what if" for us single people, for married couples, the implications of the "wrong" answer could be much more powerful.



however, we, the triumvirate of opinion, contend that everyone would choose to take a risk and wander the afterlife unattached. because the grass is always greener and no matter how much you love someone, you probably don't want to be chained to them for eternity. sure you'll say you do but deep down, do you really? after all, wedding vows traditionally contain "till death do us part." signifying that all bets are off when one party or the other croaks. so nobody should feel bad about answering to their spouses, "i'm taking my chances in the afterlife. it's been real. see ya later."