In "How to To Tell a True War Story," ofThe Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien superbly conveys how, in war, boundaries become blurred until "Order blends into chaos, love into hate, ugliness into beauty, law into anarchy, civility into savagery" (561). Concepts like beauty and justice lose their definition. Horror exhilarates. Disgust fascinates. Life is catapulted to the "nth" degree, and at that level of consciousness, the fences that have been erected to contain reality are obliterated.

O'Brien asserts convincingly that the closer one gets to death, the more acute the awareness of life and the deeper the appreciation for it. I know from personal experience (though mine could not compare to his) that imminent death brings with it a whole new perspective on life. It stands to reason that...