Editing Newsletter/Fall 2007 (section)

== Counsellor's Corner ==
''Featuring Lann A’Ders''[[Image:lann.jpg|thumb|right|Counsellor Laan A'Ders]]

Do you have any problems? Do you want advice on anything plaguing your honour? Write to our resident Klingon Counsellor.

'''Dear Lann A'Ders,''' 

'''How can I tell when it is a good day to die and when it's not?'''
 
'''-Perplexed'''

Dear Perplexed,

While I can see how a non-Klingon may find the phrase "today is a good day to die" very ambiguous and thus prompt the idea that perhaps any today or any day may, in fact, be a good day to die, there is a way to differentiate what it means in another context.

But, how then, you ask Perplexed, do you tell the difference?

The answer lies within the concept of today.  How is it that you consider today?  If it is merely a demarcation of time that is used to indicate the present 24 hour period in which you are currently living, then the problem reaches its full height of ambiguity, for there is no way do differentiate the "good" day to die (today) from the bad day to die (today).

If, however, you view today as your own personal present, the answer becomes so much more clear.  While the form of measuring time that we collectively experience is not anything standardized amongst all of the federation members (yes, we all subscribe to the concept of a terran day, but many planets have different lengths of day), the term "today" has come to mean the present.  The here, the now.

Now, in order to discern whether or not, this present, this today, is a good day to die, we must consider the following: the personal state of being.  That is correct, while the classification we are adopting of "today" is one of personal experience, the characterisation of preparedness to die must also fit in this category.  So what, then, makes it a good day to die?

No regrets.  The Klingon phrase "today is a good day to die", in current terran parlance actually signifies "I have lived my life to the fullest and in this moment, should death befall me, I engage it ready and willing: I fear not dying, I embrace it".  It amounts to a Klingon who has accepted her/his mortality, accepted her/his fate and who has lived her/his life with duty, honour and glory.  In short, that s/he has no regrets and is willing and ready, waiting for the moment that will transcend her/him into the next realm of being (both as noun and verb).

Stand up, speak out, be who you are.  Ask for clarification, run the extra mile, do all that you can so that the day you die, was the good and proper day for you.  

Qa'pla!

Laan