AT THE UNVEILING: YANEER BAR-YAM — Brother
In this place of peace and calm we have come and will come to think about Aureet. We place here a marker, a monument. It is a place of significance, endowed by our act with the significance of our feelings and associations. In January of 1991, we chose this place (for Aureet and someday for ourselves). A place, close to trees, isolated and elevated and yet close to others reflecting Aureet's love of nature and man.
The monument that stands here, symbolizes the permanence. The permanence of our memory, the permanence of Aureet's contribution. It is not just a symbol since we renew our memory again and again. To help us renew our memory we invest and associate that memory to objects that persevere longer than our memory. We have pictures and written words to help us remember, and today we place a stone in memory. As we think of Aureet here we infuse the monument with the memory. We have also made a book of her writings and pictures to retain and propagate the memory and the presence of her acts and deeds. Later today we will see pictures and paintings and talk of Aureet, some other day we can come back here and remember.
The monument that stands here, honors Aureet as a marker of her physical presence. We may often think about ourselves and the complexity of our existence as separate from our physical bodies. The imagination separates our spirit from our physical selves. But we are found in and composed of our physical bodies. Aureet was deeply rooted in the physical, both body and nature. Here below us we know her physical body, that was the matter of all that she was, is found. It is a place we want to know, and remain known because the atoms and molecules together were the miracle of Aureet. As long as they retain some clue to her existence let them be respected and treasured.
Renewal:
In our tradition, there is a belief in a time to come when those who have died before will rise and join in a new world. However, there is not much that is thought or even speculated about that time, and the rebirth is a hidden mystery. In the modern world many would like to believe in a continuation after death but there is no clue as to the form it may take.
For many today there is a transfer of the concept of rebirth to the continuation of memory and the continuation of love after death. But we are unsatisfied because we would like to meet the live person again; would like them still to grow and change independent of ourselves; would like them to live their dreams, make their contribution, and return to us with the treasure of their experience.
The prayers we say are in expectation of a renewal of life. We know not what form it will take nor when or how it will happen. We do not believe it has happened in some other hidden world, because it must be known and present. We do hope that there will be a time when the Aureet we love will join us again. A time when all the loved and lovers will be reunited.
