Keep The Message Alive

November 14, 2021

Reflections, Day 37

Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself; but talent instantly recognizes genius.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Valley of Fear

“The living owe it to those who no longer can speak to tell their story for them.”
― Czesław Miłosz, The Issa Valley

With the holidays coming up, I can visualize countless gatherings of families and friends. To my mind, these gatherings make up what I call a “living room.” It doesn’t matter where the living room is or what it looks like. The living room is not a place as much as it’s a feeling. The living room is where you find it. It can be in a formal parlor or it can be a corner of pasture fence with people leaning on the wood enclosure and having a conversation.

The living room is not a place—it is a feeling.

The living room is where our loved ones who have left us can gather and live on in the stories that are told about them. This is how we bring them back, if it’s only for a short while.

Stories may begin with, “I remember…” or “When granny cooked …” and others up to and including, “You ain’t going to believe this….”

The stories are important, and the stories need humor.

I got to wondering what would happen if we drew names and told a story about the person whose name we drew? That might be a fun game but a game is really not needed because a conversation will soon turn to stories. There’s no stopping it.

—john schulz

Keep the message alive.

Photo by Tommy Cobb