MARCH CHALLENGE|KEELEY SCHRODER|
Minimalist or Maximalist?
That is the question
Day 24: Am I Minimalist or Maximalist
I am an old man now. Along the way I hope I learned the things my father taught me. I learned that everything we have is on loan to us, the next smile, these eyelashes, the last hairs on my head, the memories. I was raised by wonderful parents and tried to emulate their teachings and discipline toward my own children.
It was following the loss of my family that I then felt closely the passing of my father. It was evening when he heard the first calling. Despite his protests I moved him to a hospital, not wanting to believe the truth, and from which he was not to leave alive.
I could not, in spite of all my efforts, keep back my tears. He clung tenaciously to life for several hours, though his eyes were never more than half open; eyes he would never again shield from the sun. That evening candles were lit, my mother stood, head shrouded in white, as if devoting herself to someone for the very first time.
All hope of life on earth had now left him. His last breath escaped its cage.
If there is one hundredth chance of God’s existence being true, we must believe, for that is only reason; the only hope. We lose nothing by belief, but by incredulity we may lose eternity.
The sailor in me finally understood that dad’s far-flung wanderings had ceased, but here in the harbor of all humanity, he left his life’s swimming faces captured in his stories and breathless in their beauty.
So, here it is I stand, a loved son, an old man who recognizes that a life well lived; a life of action might be, after all, preferable and more worth living than a life lived for things.
At his funeral I recalled to his friends why he had given up on writing poetry. Dad answered that it was wrong, because he would have gone mad. Being his son, and no longer twenty years old, I finally understand that he lived his poetry, he is poem.
Everything… every damn thing… is on loan to us.
Don’t hoard it, live it.
Participants:
Adrienne Beaumon, Autistic Widower (“AJ”), Brett Jenae Tomlin, The Sturg, Vidya Sury, Collecting Smiles, Richard Bailey, Marilyn Flower, Trisha Faye, Karen Schwartz, NancyO, Robert G. Longpré — [he/him] — Canadian métis, Katie Michaelson, Bernie Pullen, Laure Dorsemaine, Debika Kumari, Michelle Jimerson Morris, redkitewrites, Celia McKinley, Charisse Tyson, Julie KingGood, Amy Frances, Julia A. Keirns, Ravyne Hawke, Pamela Oglesby, Toni the Talker, Cathy Cremer, Tina, Kayla Tackett, Pat Romito LaPointe, C Cap1, Anna Itzel Cazita, K., Brandon, Misty Rae, Karen Hoffman, Deb Palmer, Susie Winfield, Vincent Pisano, Paari, Marlene Samuels
Here are a few of our entries to enjoy:
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