This man was a teacher, and as I look out today I see many of those he taught, he did teach the mechanics of art, but more importantly he taught with the soul of himself. And that is what is in this room at present, he is in my heart and will always be so, and with many others in this room, not as a perfect person, not without faults, but one that loved all, and is loved by many, this is where his soul is now.

The purpose of a man's life is to transcend himself. After all, to get beyond life is my end;

Is also my beginning?

In what, finally, does human life consist?

Does life not tell us that life is a thing, as vaporous as the dew which is driven away and disappears with the wind.

That like a field of grass dried up in the heat of the sun it's withering is a mere fact of life.

Or more to the point, because we alone know we must die.

Animals do not know this and do not entertain thoughts of impending extinction.

Thus death is at once the most commonplace of all happenings,

What could be more banal, more drearily self-evident than the fact of ones own death?

And at the same time the most painful, incomprehensible, and least tolerable or welcome of all things that conspire to overtake and destroy us.

It seemingly crushes and scatters to the four winds the little bit of meaning that we have laboriously accumulated in a lifetime.

The basic contradiction pervading all existence remains utterly irresolvable, on the purely human level.

I cannot speak of Tony without speaking from the other side of my heart, and then there is

Jennie

 

 

Everything I love is soft and silent,

My cat, the morning sun, the end of day.

Even the moon in its way.

Everything is soft and silent.

The water, the forest, the snow at play,

Even the mountain in its way.

Everything I love is soft and silent,

The sun and the sand, a rainy day.

Even the wind in its way.

Everything I love is silent,

The grass, the brook, the leaves at play,

Even you in your way.

 

 

He has returned to his beloved Jennie,

Who still lives in my heart,

And will always be there.

SHE WAS HIS STRENGTH

And loved all without reservation

Oh how we miss you,

But we all know she is with him to keep him in line.