232 / Rio

It is somewhat strange to be reading a book about India as I travel in Brazil, but that is what I am doing. The book is called Chef, and was written by Jaspreet Singh. I do recommend it. In view of my recent postings about the necessity of death, and the part that death plays in the world of Nature, and the efforts we make within our world to avoid and deny death, I found this quotation compelling:

Our bodies ... are made of cells at the most fundamental level. Cells are constantly taking birth and dying inside us. Every cell knows when to kill itself. But cancer cells refuse to do so, they keep giving birth to more and more cells, and refuse to die themselves. People with cancer die ... because at the fundamental level their bodies start craving immortality.