Milestones and Touchstones

Reading Susan's blog about Diane Greenlaw and her home has set me to musing.  Diane has been a treasured friend of mine and our family for about 15 years now.  There are enough stories there to write 20 blogs.  Diane is the sort of person who always makes a house a home, as Susan said.   She is the kind who not only have seasonal decorations, she can actually find them year after year and get them out on time.  She has attempted to assist me from time-to-time, but I find the Halloween decorations at Thanksgiving and locate the Easter ones around the 4th of July.  They are just a total waste with me and I have given up.  I do know WHERE the Christmas decorations are, especially the manger set that Paul and I bought in 1970 at W.T Grants.  But knowing where it is and actually getting it out are two different things and I usually fall down on the latter. 

But as I write this, I am sitting in my Surry kitchen on one of the chairs that Mom and Dad gave me last year when they downsized.  It is a rattan chair that Aunt Yvonne gave them when they got married in 1948.  They they went ahead and bought another one and a matching  table which was a sizeable investment for newlyweds who sold their car to buy a home for $3000.  We had the chairs reupholstered this winter and they are now part of our kitchen decor.  They sit a little low, I suppose furniture design has changed a little (or people had shorter legs then) but I am very proud of them and happy to have them.  The chairs were first part of my mother's beauty shop that she opened in 1949 and then moved to the family room at 37 Military Avenue in Fairfield and stayed there for 50 years.  They are there amidst the family Christmas tree photos all those years.  Our grandson easily climbs up on them, he's proud of himself for accomplishing such a feat, I'm proud of the fact that he's included in generations of family history and heritage.

The Bible talks about such things as these.  In Joshua 4, the people were instructed by the Lord to take 12 stones and place them as markers and symbols of what God did for them.  God's exact words were "when your children ask in time to come, ‘What do those stones mean to you?’  then you shall tell them.........".   Milestones and touchstones are symbols of where we came from, what matters, and what we stand for.  They give us direction much like a road sign does, milestones look forward and backward, markers along the journey to keep us going.  The touchstones themselves don't necessarily have alot of value.  A pile of stones isn't worth much, but oh, the significance of what they mean is priceless.

Being here in Surry, amidst the material treasures of my life that live here, it seems good to reflect on these milestones and touchstones.  When my children ask in 'time to come', "what do these chairs mean to you'?, my answer is ready.  

These chairs mean the continuity of a family steeped in love and rich in heritage.  They reflect a people who have respect for the things of life and the life of things.  I think this is an important value in a society that often values what is new, best, and up-to-date where the clothes of last year are too outdated to wear today and when the computer you bought last week is already obsolete. 

To me, the objects that sustained generations of family are real and tangible touchstones of our lives together.  My grandfather who died before I was born sat on these chairs, as did other beloved aunts and uncles.  These chairs witnessed countless birthday parties, wedding and baby showers, and family get-togethers.  These chairs say to me "you come from good stock", and "continue to teach your children well".   To be able to say that we treasure family, heritage, values, tradition, and each other is vitally important.  I don't worship these chairs, but I hold them up as touchstones and use them to measure the milestones of life.  I pray that this can be part of the heritage of living well that is passed along to Tan Nguyen and the others that follow in our footsteps.