Surrender in the Icy Vise (Side Quest 17)

As I sat at edge of Toronto's Harbourfront looking onto Lake Ontario, the grandfatherly words of Alan Watts entered my thoughts:

The point of life... is to be alive.. that's it.

I had heard this and numerous bits of wisdom like it before: koans, proverbs, dictum; all of which I yearned to live authentically by, automatically even, but never quite feel them at times. There is a superficial level of understanding, an intellectual grasp of a concept, but its another to really know and understand something deep down.

If the point of being alive, is to be alive.

I thought to myself,

We only know what life means by knowing what it is to die.

I continued.