Taking It With Me

Articles from Boomer Magazine in Richmond, VA

Thursday, 02 December 2010 14:57

BY RANDY FITZGERALD

It’s not easy to admit to being a lover of “things,” because that term also labels me, unfairly I think, as materialistic. There aren’t many things I love in this life—lots of people, not many things—but there are a few I’m passionate about. In fact, if the old Egyptian custom of burying useful or favorite things with the deceased were still in fashion, I know just what I’d want in my tomb.

First, to look at throughout eternity, I’d take along photo albums of Barb, me and our children and a drawing Barb did of our life together many years ago.

I also love my banjo and my guitar. Will there be room in my coffin for at least one of them? (The pallbearers should be glad I don’t play piano!) I don’t pretend to be an accomplished musician, but one of the joys of my life is plicking and plucking along with the greats online, or enjoying the superior talents of the other members of the bluegrass band I’m in (East of Afton).

Since there’s a difference in theological opinion as to whether I’m immediately going to heaven or will have a long rest waiting for the resurrection (ignoring the more important question of whether I’ll get to heaven at all), it would be good to have that banjo handy in case I want to amuse myself while I wait.

Of course, I’d want my iPod touch to play all my favorite music, as well as my new Apple laptop computer. Wait a minute—maybe I am materialistic!

I’ll definitely have to have a book along. I choose a literature textbook, Major British Writers, that I used in my undergraduate days at the University of Richmond. It has a good deal of the poetry that I enjoy most and that I’ve spent a lifetime teaching, memorizing and loving.

Finally, since it’s getting a little crowded in there, maybe my little pewter statue of a frog singing and playing banjo. That always makes me smile and sometimes laugh out loud when I look at it. If things really go bad postmortem, I may need this most of all.

What would you take with you? It’s interesting to know the “things” that people value most. And despite how we live our lives here on earth, I’ll wager nobody would choose to share a casket with a blanket of money.

Randy Fitzgerald teaches modern American literature at Virginia Union University. He was a longtime public relations director at the University of Richmond and columnist for the Richmond Times-Dispatch.