"Only his body remains forever"

Reminds me of my father's admomition, pointing at the bare bulb in the unfinished kitchen ceiling of the always-under-construction log house of my youth: "See that bulb? It's but a husk. When the filament burns out, only the husk remains. Such is life; so are we."

My father entered University at age 15, graduated at 18. We kids were less in awe of his brilliance than properly derisive, but I've come to appreciate some of his almost folksy utterances as I age into his precise, if not kid-friendly wisdom.