Beatification Dreams |
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11 April 2026 - Schweiz
This morning I allowed myself to consider a conceit, that is, posthumous beatification. I know, I'm not catholic, I deny even existence of a deity, and what they call sin has oft been my guiding star. Still, such a conceit is comforting. Grandma, one of the most important people in my life, has just died. And she will fade in our memories and then when we who remember her have died she will be gone. What if, instead, they sold trinkets emblazoned with her face on the street and people studied her life as an exemplar? What if this website outlives me? Once I thought children were the guarantee to being remembered, but I was wrong there. They could be, but loving them and giving them every last ounce of yourself doesn't decide who they become. A parent can only open doors and be a guide. In the end children always choose their own path. Apparently J. D. Vance, whose early life experience resonates with mine if in bolder colors, has a new book coming out about his conversion to catholicism. I will read it at some point probably and not all be convinced. Vice presidents are historical footnotes, but he did have an award-winning film made about him before he became a politician. In the end I am just human I guess, and what I build may or may not outlast me. I put the effort into building, so it seems important to me but maybe it isn't. So in the multiverse of my imagination a hundred years from now the street vendors of Assisi are selling magnets and shotglasses with my face on them and books about my life. And my life is being used to sell a belief system and an institution I would today stand to be counted against. Perhaps it's better to be forgotten.
