When I was no longer of the world, I would miss its extravagant beauty.
I would miss the complex and charming layers of subterfuge by which the truth
of the world's mysteries was withheld from us even as we were
tantalized and enchanted by them.
I would miss the kindness of good people who were compassionate when so may
were pitiless, who made their way through so much corruption
without being corrupted themselves,
who eschewed envy in a world of envy,
who eschewed greed in a world of greed,
who valued truth and could not be drowned in a sea of lies,
for they shone and, by the light they cast,
they had warmed me all my life.
