Claire V. Bogdanos

EXCUSE me but I digress, wouldn’t you ?  I find myself musing among the words of Dr. Holmes, the senior Oliver Wendell of course !  If you have followed my DATELINES, then you will know how taken I am with his writing all these many years.  There is a line he wrote in a letter from Beverly Farms, 7/9/1885, that is exceedingly profound and I would like you to ponder its core meaning !  He ends his self critique with these words:  But the morning dew means little to the withered leaf !  Wow !  He repeats in a letter from same on 7/9/1894 noting that his opinion hasn’t changed.  May I ask you to search out these letters on WIKIPEDIA, nothing like authenticating.  Now what does this have to do with facing one’s own mortality, everything !  In our lives we calmly allow atrophy to overtake parts of our anatomy to stifle the most exciting contributions we are capable of making,  from actions to words !  This includes progeny to thought process, wisdom.  Why did God give us speech ?  Or the capacity to think, plan, dream, hope ?  And not the lions ?  For we are special in His image, not automatons, however we are perceived.  I for one wish to exercise my abilities until the day I bid adieu, knowing all the while that this is what  I was created for.  In Genesis 9:1 instructions to Noah, be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth.  Amen !          Sincerely,        Claire B.

“And if I should live to be……….That last leaf upon the tree……….In the spring,……….Let them smile, as I do now,…………At the old forsaken bough………..Where I cling”………….( final stanza).    The Last Leaf by Oliver Wendell Holmes