Tread With Care

From the Tarot of the Absurd, the Hermit; from the Post-psychedelic Cyberpunk Oracle, the Forest:

[Buddha's] very last words, spoken to his closest followers who surrounded his deathbed, were these: Things fall apart; tread the path with care. 

―Winton Higgins

It's a shame that most of us don't develop wisdom until we enter the latter part of our lives. This Hermit holds up the lamp of wisdom while trying to stop the sands of time. He knows that there is little time to reflect on what we've valued and where our focus has been. As the apostle James wrote, "You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes." The Forest brings to mind the words of Henry David Thoreau and parallels the advice of the Hermit: "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived."