I met a shirtless young man last week around whose neck was hanging a golden Chinese character and on whose arm a Chinese word was tattooed. I asked him. But a value with its kernel of continuing necessity can glow like an inner gem in our experiences. Love, Freedom, Passion, Humor, Drama, Song such values already leap across the centuries, settling where they will, independent of time and place. If any such qualities are to reincarnate, I d say, then they must be lived openly and be thereby noticed and passed to some future generation.
Humans see, humans do.
To the extent that we are what we value, and to the degree that disembodied but observed values return alive to inhabit new bodies during new eras, to that degree does what we most value about ourselves continue to live on in the most important way. Nor, even, are we that intriguing face we see posing in the glass. We are, I would maintain, those living qualities we truly value, that innermost part of us that s sure to return to life in the future, in another form perhaps. Tell them that Sister Taffy sent you. They d hoped to prevent the AIDS-stricken nation from importing less expensive medicines.