Kathy J. Phillips (English, Univ. of Hawai'i at Manoa) is the author of The Moon in the Water (for a review, see p. 50), an innovative book that brings together art appreciation, personal spirituality, East-West dialog, and issues of aging and caregiving. In the book Phillips uses images of the Buddhist goddess Kuan Yin to structure the story of her relationship with her father as he approaches his final illness. This book is an unusual fusion of spiritual quest and memoir—Kuan Yin is the presiding influence—but it's also about your father's decline. Let's start with Kuan Yin. What should we know about her? Kuan Yin is a teacher of compassion in Buddhism. It is easy to learn about her living in Hawai'i; you can see her image at an outdoor shrine in Chinatown, a Korean, Japanese, or Vietnamese temple, a Thai shop, or on a little laminated plastic swinging from a knapsack on the bus. I won't give away the distinctive use to which you put "Water-Moon" images, but perhaps you could say something about some of the other traditions of representing her (or him!). Kuan Yin has many conventional representations in art. She often pours from her jar or sits with one knee drawn up. I found myself thinking of the "Water-Moon Kuan Yin" convention only after my dad moved in. She sits on a tiny island or jutting embankment and just watches for the reflection of the moon in the water. Isn't that too confining? I realized I was probably thinking of that image because I was feeling a little confined as care-giver. Yet Kuan Yin looks perfectly content on her precarious perch. How in the world does she do it? How did you discover this idea of bringing Kuan Yin to your memoir? The specific artworks were a very big help in my writing because the individual quirks in the paintings were a jumping-off point for imagination. They kept me from becoming completely mired in my own situation, while at the same time they forced me to see my dad's and my own situation in a different perspective. The quest to find out what "the moon in the water" meant to different thinkers or artists over the centuries motivated me, and I enjoyed formulating the page at the end with what seemed to me the major variations on the meanings of Moon-Water Kuan Yin. What place does Kuan Yin have in the modern world? Kuan Yin still has a big place in modern Asia, even in mainland China, where religion is frowned on. I had a colleague who traveled to China when the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s was finally over. The revolution had led to the destruction of many Buddhist artifacts, but after it was over, some temples were being restored. This colleague went to a famous temple known for its old Buddha statue expecting to see that statue restored first, but when he got there, he found that the one statue the temple had thus far restored was its Kuan Yin. What did caring for your father teach you about yourself and your spirituality? I received a lot of Kuan Yin-like marvels from my old dad. Even when he was helpless, he gave his great patience and humor. In the chapter called "Weak as Water," where two neighbors came at 3 a.m., without a complaint, to pick him up when he fell out of bed, Dad gave his amazing, bright smile. To try to express a sense of the continued power in him, I ended that chapter with, "He knows his life is dashing on, like a stream, out of my picture, but weak water can dissolve mountains and find sea—no problem, says Kuan."