"Being is, and... Nothingness is not; but... there is a 'difference' between Nothingness and Being, a difference which to a certain extent is as much as Being itself is, since without it, if there were no difference between Being and Nothingness, Being itself would not be."--Kojève

The Basement of Being No More/West Seattle/Sat May 1/9 am: Officer Jenkins entered the scene through the north side door of the West Seattle home. The morning had now matured into all of the noises that would fill the rest of the day. Officer Jenkins contacted a member of the Seattle Fire Department and was informed that the corpse of a 17-year-old male was in the house's basement bedroom. The SFD had not observed any injury or trauma on the body. Officer Jenkins then spoke with the stepfather of the deceased, who led him down into the basement.

"I entered the bedroom," reports Officer Jenkins, "and on the right observed the victim lying on his back with arms propped above his head, resting on pillows. There were no obvious signs of rigor present in the body.... [I] observed the room was very clean and orderly. There was a stack of books and notebooks at the head of the victim's bed. The victim had been studying earlier in the evening.

"I contacted the victim's mother. She stated that she had spoken with the victim at 11 pm last night, when he was getting ready to take a shower. [When he was done with the shower] she saw the victim turn the fan off in the bathroom around 11:30 pm, and walk to bed. She then came downstairs at 8 am this morning and found him lying on the bed, unresponsive.

"The mother had moved here [to the U.S.] from the Ukraine two years ago, and was a medical doctor.... Her son got along with his [American stepfather] and was a 4.0 student. He was active socially and took weight training.... [He] had no medical issues, and hadn't complained of any problems recently. [Both mother and stepfather] do not believe he was taking any supplements, nutrients, or drugs in relation to his weight training....

"The Medical Examiner's Office was contacted and investigator David Delgado Jr. responded with an assistant. They confirmed no obvious signs of injury, trauma, or suspicious activity at the time.... They estimated that the death occurred between 1 am and 5 am, based on rigor mortis and level of lividity. They took charge of the body and advised the parents."

The most terrifying thing about this report is the possibility that the unfortunate young man died from nothing at all. It appears that drugs, or an illness, or his own hands, or the hands of another person were not responsible for bringing him to the end of being alive. All evidence points to the possibility that his heart stopped because it was time for it to stop. But this is wholly unacceptable--to die of death, to die because there is nothing else left to do but just to die. If this were true, if death is the cause of death, then that would mean life is the cause of life. And how in the world could we accept that as the final truth? To live because of everything and then to die because of nothing.