My dear,

Who is the happier man, he who has braved the storm of life and lived or he who has stayed securely on shore and merely existed?

Sure, maybe the man on shore got to see life for what it was, and lived to tell a tale.

But he who road the waves… he got to experience the thousand beats a second pounding of his heart; the sensation of sweat running down his neck, his back, and his thighs – from pure exhilarating fear; and the air blown out of him as the ocean hit him from the left, from the right, from all sides of him. He got to feel life, to feel ALIVE.

I’d say it was he who passed his last breath with a smile on his face.

Falsely yours,
Hunter Stockton Thompson