What's up with Whatsit

Quote of the day

My grandparents spent the vast majority of their lives in Clarke County Mississippi. Quitman was "town" for them, although I'm not sure if they ever lived inside the city limits or not. By the time I came along, they lived 10 miles out of Quitman, right smack in the middle of what is popularly called "the country."

A native of Quitman, Wyatt Cooper, married Gloria Vanderbilt. He was her fourth and last husband. He wrote a book called Families, which I had never read. I had forgotten that my mother had given me a copy. I cleaned out my bookshelves about a month ago, after which I took stacks and stacks of books to the public library. Haha, I know, that sounds funny, a librarian donating books to another library besides her own. The whole point of getting rid of them was so I wouldn't have to fool with them anymore. Anyway, I found my copy of Wyatt Cooper's book and added it to my "stack of stuff" to read.

Here is a quote from the very first chapter that I wanted to share.

To escape death, to cheat its cruel annihilation, we build monuments to ourselves; we establish empires; we collect memorabilia, accumulate clutter; we make books; we write our names in the sand; we leave little signs saying "I was here." But our real survival, the only immortality we can be sure of, is that part of ourselves we invest in others, the contribution we make to the totality of man, the knowledge we have shared, the truths we have found, the causes we have served, the lessons we have lived.

I have been having a fine time feeling sorry for myself lately for several reasons: a husband who is totally dedicated to work to the exclusion of family; disgust with how my students behave; annoyance at the manipulation of my mother; the dependence of my small children. All of this has built up over the past months until lately I have felt that I was at the end of my mental, spiritual, and emotional resources. Anybody who has raised children knows what it feels like to think you have given - or that other people have taken - all you have to offer, and receive nothing in return.

It's funny how a quote will come along just at the right time and knock you in the head.