Dear ivan:

I think that the architect creates a new FORM when he designs a building. I think that the form I am right now, this person typing this to you is always changing, the atoms, molecules but thought and feeling patterns, neurological pathways in my brain, as well as other processes in my body, have been keeping remarkably the same for decades. There is the constant CHANGE and there is the biological efforts to keep things the same: same body temperature, blood sugar, core beliefs, etc.

I think that after my death this form typing to you will be no more. The atoms that make my body and the energy will continue, but anything at all associated with my FORM, from my looks to my core beliefs, my cognitions, all of that will be gone.

anita

Dear ivan:

I see your view as poetic, that is nice-sounding but not realistic. Sure people who knew me will remember me somehow in different ways, mostly affected by their pre-existing views of life and the world. In other words, what others remember of ME will have much more to do with who THEY are than with who I was. People’s memories and emotional memories of the dead are just that: memories, neurological connections of past experience, experience filtered by pre-existent beliefs and perceptions. Their memories will be about them, not about me, much of it and by most people. Regarding famous people, Einstein- Jesus- the most famous person- i have no idea who he really was. Again, the way people view Jesus has to do with who the people viewing are- their perception of Jesus has very little- if anything- to do with who Jesus was and mostly- if not everything- to do with who the viewer is.

Einstein is dead. He is not living through his works. He is dead. To view him as living, in my mind, is poetic. To view him as dead is realistic.

anita