Looking at the things we keep

Good morning, everyone, and welcome back to another Cecil’s World in Print. How many of you feel you are a part of a perfect family? You know what I mean — like the Jones, the family everyone likes to keep up with and be like. Well, my question to you is, what are the guidelines for a perfect family? Is it having enough money to live comfortably, having a nice home and having a new car every year? I am sure some of you answered yes to those questions.

Well, if you ask me, it is more than material things. Don’t get me wrong, it is nice to have the finer things in life. But there is more to it than that. If you are married, it means having a family that means more to you than life itself. It also means having good friends you can count on every day. And, of course, you cannot leave out good health. Love, happiness and friends can help you experience that perfect life.

I want to share something with you that a friend of mine sent me a few weeks ago. It made me really think about life in general. It’s called “A Keeper Story.” Here’s an excerpt:

Their marriage was good, their dreams focused. Their best friends lived barely a wave away. I can see them now, Dad in trousers, T-shirt and a hat and Mom in a house dress, lawn mower in one hand, and dishtowel in the other. It was the time for fixing things. A curtain rod, the kitchen radio, screen door, the oven door, the hem in a dress.

Things we keep.

It was a way of life, and sometimes it made me crazy. All that re-fixing, eating, renewing, I wanted just once to be wasteful. Waste meant affluence. Throwing things away meant you knew there’d always be more.

But then my mother died, and on that clear summer’s night, in the warmth of the hospital room, I was struck with the realization that sometimes there isn’t any more. Sometimes, what we care about most gets all used up and goes away ... never to return. So, while we have it, it’s best we love it and care for it and fix it when it’s broken and heal it when it’s sick.

This is true for marriage and old cars and children with bad report cards and dogs with bad hips and aging parents and grandparents. We keep them because they are worth it; because we are worth it.

Keep a best friend who moved away, a classmate we grew up with, people we know who are special — keep them close!

I received this from someone who thinks I am a keeper, so I’ve sent it to the people I think of in the same way. Now it’s your turn to send this to those people who are keepers in your life. Good friends are like stars: you don’t always see them, but you know they are always there.

That’s it for another Cecil’s World in Print. I’ll see you next week, right here in the Morning News and on the tube.

— Cecil Chandler is a veteran reporter at WBTW News13. His column appears Mondays in the Morning News.