way stations and milestones
A few weeks ago, the odometer on my car rolled over 66,666 miles. This got me thinking. For purely aesthetic reasons, this struck me as a (admittedly not significantly) memorable moment for my car’s journey through this world. So how do we commemorate the small and large moments of our journey through this world.
Nationally, we have annual holidays and celebrations. We also have statues and other memorials. One memorial I remember, with some fondness, is that for the Battle of Bloody Marsh on St Simon’s Island, on the (US) Georgia coast. (And despite the information in the recorded message that we listened to every visit, twice a year for many years of visits, the battle was not bloody, and in fact not much of a battle at all.)
On reflection, there are some holidays that span nations, but I’m not aware of a holiday that’s celebrated by all nations. We are in some ways so very local in our culture.
Smaller still, families have their celebrations, as do each of us as individuals. Some of these family celebrations involve those who we’ve lost over the years, and who we remember. As individuals, perhaps we collection memorabilia reminding us of particular people, particular moments, particular events.
One of the things we as humans do is we spend a lot of time commemorating our pasts, the large and the small.
Taking a strangely different direction of thought, what if we were to take this tendency to both of its extremes. One extreme might be, to be completely bound by our pasts. A different extreme, to view the past as just a story, a mere suggestion for future action. And this then leads to ideas, not for stories, but for the characters in stories.
And so I’ll ponder the milestones and commemorations in my own life, and for the characters in stories to come.
