(no subject)
"I was wondering," said the cat, "on a subject that has held me thinking for many years. I cannot even frame the subject satisfactorily. Should it be 'Who am I?' or should it be, 'What am I?'? And when I know how to frame the question there is still the answer to be discovered."
"You are the very one for me," said the wise man. "That is a question to be solved at the top of my hill."
"As well there as anywhere," said the cat. "But since my span of life is but twice seven years how shall I live for seventy to ponder on the fruits of your teachings?"
"If your thoughts are fixed on Eternity, Time will forget you," said the wise man.
So the cat got up to go with him.
For seven years the old man taught the cat all his wisdom and at the end of that time he lay down and died.
The cat buried him and sat down again underneath the tree and for seventy years thought on what he had learnt and had his mind fixed on Eternity.
At the end of that time he shook himself and said:
"What, have seventy years gone by? And still I have not answered my question." And as he spoke Time remembered him and he grew one second older. But as he immediately returned to his contemplation of Eternity, Time once more held away from him.
And so it has gone on for many thousands of years.
excerpt and drawing from "The Wise Old Cat Who Sat On the Top of the Hil" from THE GOLDEN HEN by my grandmother, Diana Ross