03/25/01
Mail and Memories
Some days, my mother gets more mail than I do. She seems to have
a better credit rating, too, judging by the credit card offers
she gets.
And she’s been dead for three years, God rest her soul.
How is that possible? Not that she’s dead, but that she gets more
magazine pitches, more credit card applications and all the rest
than I seem to? (To be very honest, though, she’s welcome to be
the junk-mail queen of our home.)
But it happens because of the utter inability of computers to
forget, except what you want them to forget, and because of the
inane failure of the U.S. Postal Service to notice who’s still
breathing and who isn’t.
But it’s also because of something much better and much more appreciated:
our very human need to remember.
My mother’s memory—and the comic opera regarding her mail—flitted
across my brain as my wife and I were enjoying a weekend breakfast
in our town. We live in a suburb which has enjoyed a bloom of
“street art” in recent years—murals on brick walls, sculptures
outside bookstores and the like.
Near our favorite bagel-and-coffee joint is a series of murals
we’ve watched develop for the past several months, sort of a two-dimensional
history of our town. We’ve been around long enough to recognize
most of the events, if not the people pictured. But each has played
a part in shaping the past into the present.
Such memory is also a measure of our faith; it helps us understand
who we are and where we come from.
Lent forms a powerful foundation for that, allowing us to be reminded,
with clarity, of our faith history. As we walk through these days
and weeks of purple, we trace the stories, the words, the events
that link us as a people for whom Jesus is that foundation.
Our memories will also be full of images of our parents, our children,
the places we’ve visited, the experiences we’ve had. They allow
us to be who God created, people sharing a unity as well as celebrating
differences.
And so long as we are a people of memory, we will be a people
of faith.
Tom Sheridan
Editor and General Manager
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