Great Uncle Fred? I just don`t get it. People work and work and bring up children, and then they die. Then their children die. It`s just horrible, isn`t it? What`s the point? (Cecily, Spring 2008)

There might be no point. But I happen to think there is, and each one of us matters hugely, each one of us has universal importance. This belief, however, can be hard to explain in words. Words are not always up to the job, you know? Do you know the song, "It`s never better than when you`re lost for words" by Yasmin Khan? Well, it is a very good song and says what I am trying to say better than I can... I suppose I could go on about the fact that you are a shiningly unique individual, a fantastic object and piece of work, that you bring to the World a particular Cecilyness that no one else could possibly match and you have these wonderful capacities - for delight, for love, to create, sustain and simply live. But then you would say, perhaps, "And then we die, what`s the point?" But maybe the dying thing is the point? I mean, no one would be so cruel as to say to a bereaved parent, say, "What was the point of that life?" Although it would be hard to say what exactly the point was, the parent would be in no doubt that the finished life had every point under the sun. But, as I say, it would be hard to put into words. It is possible, Cecily, that you have not experienced the death of someone close. If you have, or when you do, and you still think "What`s the point?", get back to me, would you?

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