"D'où Venons Nous? Que Sommes Nous? Où Allons Nous?

"Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?

Our Walk Through Time is a celebration of creativity, of the diversity and continuity of life. We have walked through deep-time, our collective past, which includes 4,000 million years of weaving, wandering life forms. As we "hold the mirror up to nature," deep-time calls up the presence of the past.

The deep-past lives in each of us, in all of us — each cell, each thought. Walking through the grand pageant of life on Earth can be humbling, sometimes overwhelming. It is also exhilarating.

Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?

(Painting by Paul Gauguin, Tompkins Collection courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.)