Nothing original here. I have encountered two quotations that encapsulate everything that is going on with me, so thought I'd post them.

The first is the famous Epicurean "Riddle of Evil." I heard it on Jonathan Miller's show on Channel 13, A brief History of Disbelief. Epicurus did not consider himself an atheist. But anyone who is an atheist, like me, will surely have gone through this same thought process:

If God is willing to prevent evil, but is not able to / Then He is not omnipotent.
If He is able, but not willing / Then He is malevolent.
If He is both able and willing / Then whence cometh evil?
If He is neither able nor willing / Then why call Him God?

The second quote is from the novelist Reynolds Price, posted in the blog of Theresa Duncan, a video-game designer and filmmaker, who killed herself recently. I read about this in today's New York Times:

"A need to tell and hear stories is essential to the species Homo sapiens--second in necessity apparently after nourishment and before love and shelter."

There are smart people all around us, thinking and saying and writing intelligent things. There's no need to croak ourselves--only connect.