W3 Day 2

A Partial Account
A scholar who was for long abroad on archaeological trips finally returned home. There was a reception given to him by the Board of Trustees of Natural History Museum. The night was clear and warm. Under a starry sky the old scholar surrounded by many who came to see and hear him felt at ease. A reporter for the local newspaper wanted to know what made him give so much of his time and resources to a time dead and gone.
“Dead but not gone!” the old scholar replied. He clenched his fist and asked,” What makes it possible for me to do this?” “Your body of course.” “Where do you think that my body found its elements in the first place? Did it not come from stars?” the scholar asked.
“I guess so.” The reporter nodded,” We are made of stardust and all that.”
Catching the young reporter looking at the starry sky he asked, “What is the night sky lit up with? Does not light from stars dead and gone still reach us? Do we take them for dead?”
“I guess not.”
The scholar made his point. We are made by the past. The dead count as one with the living.
2

Dear and departed are not non-existent. We weep for them and then they are given a place in our hearts. Of course they have no longer an identifiable body as such. Still those atoms that made up their physical reality are deathless. What would that mean to us?
How we understand of death is from the land of living and is subjective:it is a reality only relevant to us. Hence it is partial.
The sunlight that we see has had an headstart of 8 minutes. Does that lapse of time mean anything to us? The light that we see at night is from stars millions of light years away. Some of them are dead and yet it makes no impact to us as the story in the beginning would indicate.
In short time as we know or understand time tells only in part.
benny