One Small Favor

The human person is curious by nature. The question is, that if the knowledge we ask for is always pleasing. Sometimes, it’s best if we didn’t know something. Once you’ve learned the knowledge, there’s no forgetting it, no escaping it. This has never happened to me, or at least I don’t remember if it has. When Gilgamesh asked for the knowledge of the Nether World, he more or less opened Pandora’s Box. When Gilgamesh asked Enkidu to risk his spirit to go down to the Nether World, he obeyed without hesitation. This, only a true companion would do. There is one thing, though, that I think that Gilgamesh, the text, failed to refer to, which was the regret that Gilgamesh should have felt when sending his soul-mate on a kamikaze mission. The text says something I completely agree with, which is that those who have no one to miss them once they’re gone, suffer the most:


“The one who goes to the Nether World without
leaving behind him any to mourn for him?

Garbage is what he eats in the Nether World.
No dog would eat the food he has to eat.”

p. 92

This quote explains how the most important thing needed to be done on this earth is to be part of, to influence someone else’s life so that they mourn you once you’re gone.

It must be depressing to think that you've left no influence on the world you're about to leave.