So far, the best thing found to avoid dying young is old age. Only, when it is not accompanied by diseases, it is accompanied by ridicule. If one takes a little care of their appearance, they are considered to be "showing off," "acting young," or "regressing," and if they let themselves go, they are treated as if they have fallen into senile melancholy or dementia. Heads you lose, tails others win, this is the deadlock of the so-called "third age." And its only genuine compensation - the accumulated wisdom - remains unclaimed. (We always live in societies of impulsive, youthful initiative - not of moderation and mature reflection.)

Arkas explored ingeniously what happens to us after death, in: Life After. The Peers constitute something like a "prequel" to that album. It wouldn't be inappropriate to call them: Life Just Before, as they include an equally ingenious catalog of what happens at the close of human life. The three central characters - Gerasimos, Charalambos, and Zacharias, the dog - are perfect epitomes of three basic attitudes towards death: complete denial, prudent acceptance, or angry compromise. Complete denial is expressed by the nearly ninety-year-old Charalambos, acceptance by the seventy-five-year-old Gerasimos, and angry compromise by the "peer" (eleven-year-old) dog.