John Faces His Mortality

John faces his mortality as he has faced most of life stoically. For John, life could be good or bad, enjoyable or miserable, depending on one's luck. There is no Heavenly purpose for a person to conduct his or her life in one fashion over another.

Mortality and Moral Purposes

But there are mortal and therefore moral purposes, in John's estimation. In turn, there is individual responsibility for one's actions.

Exploring Human Values

And John explores those human values and responsibility, as well as his Heavenly Gleanings. In the process, John develops his final theory about life, and executes his final very mortal deed to help his fellow humans.