Thank you Wendell Berry

All we truly have is remembrance.

Since picking up “Jayber Crow” 3 years ago, the course of my life has been altered towards a road full of noticing, appreciating, and remembering.

Among the many gifts Berry has given to me through his novels, poetry, and essays, the greatest thing he left me with was an image.

An image for the way things could be.

His words built up homes that were full of people tending to their responsibilities with joy and acceptance. Homes that worked because they were built upon unity.

His words created characters within Port William who were all riddled with their sense of humanness — and leaned into it instead of running away from it. It was this leaning that led to the sweetest of friendships, and the deepest of sorrows.

The picture of love that Berry paints is one that has given me the most hope for the way things, life, could be.

Self-sacrifice, silently waiting and hoping, the continual giving of oneself — all encapsulate the love that runs throughout Port William and all of Berry’s writings. Love that covers us all over with light, and turns the whole world a shade lighter, even during a time like War.

This picture goes beyond what we simply see and experience here on earth. At the close of the novel, character Jayber Crow reflects upon the story of his life,

“This is a book about Heaven.”

Berry understood that the Kingdom of God is at hand. He knew and hoped that beyond the dim veil that we see now, we will see Glorious things.

At the end of his life, preparing to see his Maker, I can imagine Berry sitting beside his wife, Tanya, remembering the life, the home, that they built together.

We are left today, on this side of the veil. As dim as it is compared to the hope of Heaven, we join in Berry’s remembrance of the ways that we have experienced light, togetherness, and love. As we wait for what is coming, we remember and confess — we have seen Glorious Things.