thorough read in preparation for this book, that the genius and relevance of Pascal’s comment fully dawned on me. In context, he is arguing that our inability to consider the one central, certain fact of life (death, and what lies beyond it) represents a kind of supernatural spell or torpor: “All I know is that I must soon die, but what I know least about is this very death which I cannot evade.”18 The way we avoid facing the ultimate questions (meaning and death) is by filling our lives with distractions: