Forget for now the new beginning. Focus instead on what awaits its end. Endings are essential. High-quality endings are gem-like in their simplicity and clarity. Until something old dies, nothing new is born. “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless the grain of wheat, having fallen to the ground, should die, it abides alone; but if it should die, it bears much fruit.”
We are renewed (made new again) through death. This is as true for civilizations as it is for individuals. Reform, modification, more exercise, a better diet, good intentions and cosmetic procedures cannot make us new again. Were it not for death, we’d be zombies sleepwalking through an endless senility.
Reincarnation is not something that happens at the end of a lifetime; it happens numerous times during the course of a lifetime. Things we once identified with, we no longer do. What we once were, we no longer are.
The best predictor of the future kicks its chubby legs in the cradle of the now.
Memory is not primarily a mental function. Memory constitutes as the body. When the body dies, memory dies too. Memory is weight. Excess of memory, excess of weight. Babies are what an absence of memory smells like.
Men's Work 