Do You Have Enough Pictures
Friday, December 22, 2006
We watched “Meet Joe Black” tonight. I’m a big Anthony Hopkins fan (last of the breed in my book). A beautiful movie about life.
What really struck me is thinking about the lady in the hospital. She said she had enough pictures. That having sweet memories was all we had to take with us. And the whole movie went on from there.
I know I get wrapped up in the doings and goings. I don’t pause for the snapshots. I don’t often look back and see the pretty things that slowed me up for a moment, or the wonders among which I’ve walked.
Isn’t that something to look for in life? Isn’t that the real point? It’s not about the work, though we are called to do so. It’s not the survival, though we strive for it. The real thing is so simple, so clear that it eludes us all most of the time.
There’s pictures for us, like when we’re on vacation. Those are the things to take with us. Money, power, friends, toys, gardens, cats, everything stays except the pictures. Those are inside us. The pictures don’t drive us anywhere or get us anything.
But the sweet images, the proud screen captures, the joyful panoramas, the memories. Those are all that are truly ours. There ain’t another thing in us that comes with us.
You can’t drive yourself to the memories. You can’t work hard enough for them. All you can do is count them as they come, make yourself as available as possible for them. And savor them.
Every one of them.
Merry Christmas