Wednesday, September 12, 2012

How Would You Like to be Remembered?

This morning's paper ran an article by Tribune critic, Mary McNamara,  titled "Why are there so many wacky grannies on TV?"

Unlike Granny on "The Beverly Hillbillies," these gals are edgy hard drinkers who enjoy dropping the F-bomb and insulting minority groups.  Some of the fine actors playing them are Ellen Bustyn, Ellen Barken, Lily Tomlin, Elizabeth Perkins and Cloris Leachman.

McNamara says:

Barkin's Jane (in "The New Normal") is perhaps the worst, as a perfectly coiffed, pencil-skirted real estate agent whose real purpose in life appears to be giving voice to the hateful prejudice that still clings, like cankers, in the depths of the American soul.  "I feel like I ate a black and gay stew for dinner, and this is a nightmare, she says at one point."

OK, just so you know, I'm a granny but these characters are not representing me. I have no interest in dropping the F-bomb or being outrageous in a hurtful way.

By coincidence this morning I also read a portion of my Joan Chittister book on "Legacy."  Not money, but how the life of a person, now deceased, has enriched us.

The common denominator of all deaths...is the immaterial legacy, the true enrichment each of us has gained by having our lives touched by those who have gone before us. 


  • I'm concerned about leaving behind my true attitude toward people - all people - and how I treated them. 
  • I'm concerned about leaving behind my true value system. Especially when it comes to matters of life and death, purpose and meaning, spirituality and love. 
As far as I know, most of my granny friends feel pretty much the same way.  What would you like your legacy to be?


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