TRYING SOMETHING NEW
I have decided that one remedy for my obsession with Terry's illness is to do something I have never done before. So today was the day I submitted a story to TRAVERSE MAGAZINE asking that they consider it for publication. This is one way to refocus and put a little positiveness back into life.
The story I submitted is a modification of a Christmas Eve sermon I delivered a couple of years ago entitled When One Light Fails. It tells of a December night when the power went out to the lighthouse at the end of the north pier at Frankfort. I have taken much ribbing from my family for that story sermon. When I first told the story I said that when the lighthouse lost power the Ann Arbor car ferries were guided into the harbor by the light of the gigantic Christmas star mounted atop Paul Oliver Memorial Hospital. My family, especially Terry, allowed me no poetic license with this story. They doubted that the lighthouse ever went dark and they laughed at the idea that the Christmas star on the hospital could act as a substitute. For my part, I was disappointed in my family's captivity to a literal interpretation to the story. In preparing the story for possible publication I have modified the telling to allow for a more flexible interpretation.
Here's the thing. I must be able to look beyond the facts presented and attach an experience to something greater. That is just the way my heart works. A lighthouse is not just an aid to navigation. It also points to our need to find our way in the dark. A Christmas star is not just a seasonal ornament. It also points to the spiritual gift of the incarnation. How dull life would be if a lighthouse were just a lighthouse and a star just a star. Our present medical crisis must point us to a greater reality. I do not understand it as yet, but I intend to keep looking.
Dave Gladstone