While walking this evening, I was listening to an interview with Betty Fussell on a podcast. The 90-year-old food writer and historian has just released yet one more book, this a memoir. With her long and storied career, how did she decide what to include, the interviewer asked. Oh, that was the hard part, Fussell responded. She proceeded to describe the process of selection that she had used.
As I thought about Fussell choosing the stories that she would use to represent her long life, something she said recalled to me the 1991 Albert Brooks and Meryl Streep movie, "Defending Your Life." In it, Brooks character was recently deceased, and the course of the movie was comprised of his defense of his colorful life.
With the interview by then continuing with almost no attention on my part, I thought about how I would defend my life in the final "judgment day." What stories would I choose to represent the person I have been? Even as I was forming my thought, I knew that in my sorting process, I am in the fortunate position of being able to choose the course that the rest of my life will take and the stories I will write with my actions and inactions.
Well, of course, as a person who has made living my intentions the focus of many years of my adult life, I should have known that I could always do that, and..., I guess I have. Yet, for some reason, it seemed as if someone had placed a canvas in front of me and opened a new Word document, and said, "Create your life." And, so by creating my life, I will be preparing to defend it.
Then, in every sorting decision, the real question is: "How do you want to be remembered as a result of this decision?" Now it's not as if I have been doing anything untoward with my life, but the truth is that my heart hasn't been in much of my life for a very long time. And, that is what I believe I will have a hard time defending. In my heart, I know that our hearts are our guides, and if I am to defend my life by that standard, then it is time that I let my heart drive my life. That is something I can defend.
Real time virtual assistance in life... Dr. Henry Cloud says, "Each step of every day, practice 'parallel consciousness.' While you are performing any task, be asking him all the while for help. You will be surprised how present he becomes in ever day life." I love the movie Defending Your Life...a good homework assignment for a long weekend.
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