Slowly, step by step, we depart this continuum
of matter and energy we call our bodies. So unobtrusively do
our cells age that we do not notice exactly when it is that
we leave the ranks of the young. The images of the young, glistening
selves once reflected in our mirrors are forever captured behind
our retinas. We do not see the slow attrition of age, the graying
hair and fine wrinkles about the eyes and mouth. One by one
our cells die, leaving our stubbornly youthful spirits stranded
high and dry in a body wearing out before our startled gaze.
Does this mysterious essence we call spirit dissolve also,
or do we perhaps spiral together in clusters of radiant particles,
spinning and dancing in a space and time leading we know not
where?
Depending on the durability of our given bodies, we must,
all of us, arrive at this period at different chronological
ages. But it doesn’t matter. Sooner or later we must,
all of us, come to this parting, this separation from all
we know.
And now I find myself at this gateway, and I wonder--what
next? At this juncture, I remember what our physicists have
learned--that matter and energy are never destroyed--only
changed. And, like Alice going through the looking glass,
I feel "curiouser and curiouser."
