Be Together Forever
There is a post widely circulating to millions on Facebook in Chinese. The translation reads something like this.
Boy: I need a favor from you.
Girl: What is it?
Boy: Please act in a play with me.
Girl: What's the role?
Boy: Be my wife.
Girl: How long?
Boy: Forever.
60 years later, an old lady is gently caressing the head of a bed-ridden old man.
Old lady (sadly): Old man, if only this play does not have an ending...
After a pregnant pause...
Old man: I need a favor from you.
Old lady: What favor?
Old man: In our next lifetime, let's have a sequel?
Beside being a very sweet and romantic little story, it is really more literal than what it was intended to mean. In the context of A Course in Miracles, we are really actors pretending to be humans here in this illusion and dream. The characters in the story do not know it but their relationship will most probably continue in one way or another in their next illusory lifetime. Perhaps their genders will reverse or they could be best friends?
Regardless, one thing is certain in this anecdote and it is that death comes to every "body". The only way to break out of the pains from the cycles of life and death is to recognize that we are not bodies and return home where our reality is eternal.