Stephenson Family Ties

I feel sometimes as if I were a child who opens its eyes on the world

once and sees amazing things it will never know any names for and then

has to close its eyes again.  I know this is all mere apparition compared

to what awaits us, but it is only lovelier for that.  There is a human beauty

in it.  And I cant believe that, when we have all been changed and put on

incorruptibility, we will forget our fantastic condition of mortality and

impermanence, the great bright dream of procreating and perishing that

meant the whole world to us.  In eternity this world will be Troy, I believe,

and all that has passed here will be epic of the universe, the ballad they

sing in the streets.  Because I dont imagine any reality  putting this one

in the shade entirely, and I think piety forbids me to try.

from: Gilead

by: Marilynne Robinson