Czeslaw Milosz, as fine a poet and essayist as the century past produced, "has centered his writings on a few fundamental philosophical questions," according to his recent editors. In their introduction to Milosz's To Begin Where I Am: Selected Essays, the editors identify the following themes as central to Milosz: "the meaning of history; the existence of evil and suffering; the transience of all life; the ascendance of a scientific worldview and the decline of the religious imagination."

Some twenty years ago, as we were working through "Project Ten" and planning what became the Park Ridge Center for the Study of Health, Faith, and Ethics, we weren't necessarily being informed by Milosz. But we must have intuited an agenda to match, in some small ways, the grand intentions of the seasoned Nobelist.

In Second Opinion, this Bulletin, and numerous books, reports, and educational materials, the Park Ridge Center has dealt with these same "fundamental philosophical questions." Questions concerning "the existence of evil and suffering" have framed our inquiries. A center for the study of "ethics" has to face evil—that which is humanly caused and that which naturally blights creation. And one cannot speak of "health" without concentrating on suffering, and on what "the meaning of history" in theology and philosophy has to say in the face of it.

Then there is "the ascendance of a scientific worldview." Twenty years ago some spoke of the dominance of a scientific worldview that needed questioning, affirming, and countering all at once. The voice of "faith" in the name of our Center was one instrument for dealing with that. We had observed Milosz's final theme, "the decline of the religious imagination," in respect to health and ethics. It was a lonely task then to call for the reawakening of that imagination, but it is less lonely now. I hope it is realistic reporting to say that the Center has played its part in that reawakening.

I skipped one: Milosz also devoted poetry and prose to "the transience of all life." The Center has stood for realism, not denial; for the therapeutic value of dealing with things as they are, not as we might dream them to be. Everything passes. Sepulchres, libraries, civilizations, medals, diaries, lives. And, on their own scale, institutions and journals. As Laurence O'Connell, our president, announces in his Centerline (p.13), "transience" now overtakes the Center and the publications you, our readers, have come to know.

To my knowledge, there are no villains to the story. The same healthcare system that brought vision and enormous resources to this Center, shares in the economic situations of the times and is unable to sustain some of its human-servicing nonprofit ventures.

Having been, as King Alphonsus XII of Spain and Dean Acheson said, "Present at the Creation," I'll shed a tear for the passage of these cherished expressions. I'll keep warm memories of fellow editors and other staffers, the affirming support of the circle of friends of the Center, the conferees and consultants who brought so much to it, and the responses from you, our readers.

Incapable of ending on a down note, wallowing in nostalgia, or whining about what might have been, I'd rather speak of the future. First, a scaled-down version of what we have been about will exist in the Advocate Health Care system. Second, we are confident that many of those who participated in the life of the Center will carry on the vision and the work. May osmosis, trickling up and over, capillary action, and other agencies by which influence spreads be at work here. The Center has not existed to keep the Center going. It has existed to address "a few fundamental philosophical questions" as they touch on the people most important to us: caregivers and care receivers, physicians and nurses and patients, pastors and parishioners, ethics professors and students.

By now a number of "purely secular" ethics centers have questioned a hegemonous "scientific worldview" and enhanced "the religious imagination." Every one of these, like the Park Ridge Center, will experience their place in "the transience of all life." I hope they get to celebrate as much, achieve as much, and enjoy as much as we have along our way.

Carry on . . .