You are wise, and you are kind. What better rubric is there by which to judge a man?
[It's... insufficient as an answer, and there's a pause, a sort of psychic drawing of breath.]
When I was first activated, I was set to partner with a man, Elijah Baley, a plainclothes detective of the New York City police department. He was wise enough to find justice and clarity in situations others found inexplicable, and he was kind enough to eventually come to see me as more than what I am, and I was privileged to work with him on several occasions. Some of the work he accomplished completely changed the political state of the galaxy, ensuring humanity's ability to continue to expand outwards. That one accomplishment has ensured humanity's survival, though he was not thinking so far in the future then.
When he died, he called me to him, as he wished to see me, and he spoke to me of humanity as a tapestry. Individual lives, he told me, are merely threads. Individual human lives are insignificant, he was insignificant. What mattered was the greater pattern and how those threads fit together. One thread may end, but it carries other threads with it that will continue the tapestry and shift it into something better. He was, I believe, attempting to make his own death easier for me to cope with, but Partner Elijah always had a very keen and instinctive insight into human nature.
Partner Elijah has been dead for sixteen decades. I have thought much on what he said, and I have found truth in it. Already, the stories of his life have achieved a folkloric quality, though less so among his descendants, I believe. I suspect the truth will fade further as time passes, and perhaps some day men and women will no longer remember his name at all, or what he did. I doubt very much he would be entirely pleased with what is told of him now. Even in his life there were fictionalised accounts of his exploits, and he disliked them intensely. As you are, I believe, he was uncomfortable with others' attempts to immortalise him. You and he are both one thread among many billions, but both of you have changed the pattern in ways that others admire, even if their admiration is not always what you would wish.
As I said: you are kind, and you are wise, and you change the world around you for the better. That is worth appreciating. It is what I most appreciate in Ambrose, and it is what I see in you.
no subject
[It's... insufficient as an answer, and there's a pause, a sort of psychic drawing of breath.]
When I was first activated, I was set to partner with a man, Elijah Baley, a plainclothes detective of the New York City police department. He was wise enough to find justice and clarity in situations others found inexplicable, and he was kind enough to eventually come to see me as more than what I am, and I was privileged to work with him on several occasions. Some of the work he accomplished completely changed the political state of the galaxy, ensuring humanity's ability to continue to expand outwards. That one accomplishment has ensured humanity's survival, though he was not thinking so far in the future then.
When he died, he called me to him, as he wished to see me, and he spoke to me of humanity as a tapestry. Individual lives, he told me, are merely threads. Individual human lives are insignificant, he was insignificant. What mattered was the greater pattern and how those threads fit together. One thread may end, but it carries other threads with it that will continue the tapestry and shift it into something better. He was, I believe, attempting to make his own death easier for me to cope with, but Partner Elijah always had a very keen and instinctive insight into human nature.
Partner Elijah has been dead for sixteen decades. I have thought much on what he said, and I have found truth in it. Already, the stories of his life have achieved a folkloric quality, though less so among his descendants, I believe. I suspect the truth will fade further as time passes, and perhaps some day men and women will no longer remember his name at all, or what he did. I doubt very much he would be entirely pleased with what is told of him now. Even in his life there were fictionalised accounts of his exploits, and he disliked them intensely. As you are, I believe, he was uncomfortable with others' attempts to immortalise him. You and he are both one thread among many billions, but both of you have changed the pattern in ways that others admire, even if their admiration is not always what you would wish.
As I said: you are kind, and you are wise, and you change the world around you for the better. That is worth appreciating. It is what I most appreciate in Ambrose, and it is what I see in you.