No Other Life

Then again (with reference to the previous post), when Brian Nichols held Ashley Smith hostage, her faith helped her convince him that she was an angel sent from God, and that he was her brother in Christ. What'll I tell the person who takes me hostage? That, as Brian Moore wrote, there is No Other Life?

Bang! That's all, folks.

The title of Brian Moore's novel refers to the priest whose mother, on her deathbed, tells him something like, "there is no other life" and tells him to leave the priesthood. Now I'm wondering if that's a reference to Thoreau's

Take time by the forelock. Now or never. You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, and find eternity in every moment. Fools stand on their island opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land; there is no other life but this, or the like of this.

I didn't much like the rest of the novel, but I found this scene quite powerful.