I have no doubt I am standing on the edge of mortality.  But for some reason I do not fear it.  Perhaps the greatest loss in my life is not what I did but what I did not do.  I hear a rumble of thunder in the distance, and I wonder if a great army has been sent to drive me from the Earth.  I know better.  War is a confession of failure, and its perpetrators are the merchants of death, not because they are killers but because they never had the courage to lead a decent life.  

Flags on the Bayou

James Lee Burke