Last Words of a Silent Man

Meaning and Motivation of my Cemetery Monument

First some important preliminaries: 

(1) I am presently very much alive, and have no notice that a change is imminent.


(2) This monument is [as has been my life] shared with my wife, and while we are contentedly married and agree on its unique feature, we are unique individuals; from this point on, I speak only for myself.




As a child on vacations to my mother’s “Granite State” New Hampshire home, I was intrigued by sometimes odd or enigmatic, barely legible epitaphs on (century-plus) old, weathered cemetery monuments. Who were these singular, vanished scribes? What was their meaning?

Later as an adolescent (maybe 14?) at Garrett’s public library, I discovered something even more enigmatic, intriguing, and profound: an epigraph in a book, the discovery of which ultimately changed my life:

He who knows does not speak. He who speaks does not know. (Lao-Tzu)

 While I could not fathom its meaning at the time, I never forgot its mystery, which ultimately guided me toward Taoism and Buddhism, and which I have embraced for ten years now, though tempered somewhat by my own existential perspective.

Which brings us to the here and now: what does the circle of letters signify?

It’s easy, really. Like everything, your answer depends on your perspective; your point of view. Just choose a beginning point, and start reading:

Where now?

Here now.

Now here.

Nowhere. 

What could be more apropos? Can anyone say more in this regard, using just seven letters?

Erected at Garrett's Christian Union Cemetery May 13, 2015