Transcendence captivates: a life without legacy ceases the moment one draws his or her last breath.  Oral tradition transports knowledge throughout generations, but, often, the realm of influence endures to one family or one culture.  Beauty dwells in antiquated items that pass the tumultuous trials of time, demonstrating the unity of mankind to the eyes of individuals zealous to solicit the mysteries of the past.

Writing surpasses the laws of time and space through imbibing the memoir of mankind that spills throughout generations; characters and themes from ancient literature swallow one’s conscious and emit the universality of the human condition.  The concept of writing overwhelms me—the beauty and dignity of literature fascinate me.  Authors like Donte, Milton, Shakespeare, Austen, Steinbeck, and Poe communicate incommunicable expressions through their writing and leave generations drowning in awe over their masterpieces.

I write because I desire future generations to understand what it was like to live in the beginning of the twenty-first century and to realize that, though times and places drastically alter, God’s unity graces all people; mankind’s ability to relate to passages of literature written thousands of years ago proves that, despite circumstantial differences, man remains unaltered.  In 2017, at the age of 95, my great-grandmother passed away and left her Bible and her travel journal to my family.  While her lifetime dramatically differs from my own, I recognized so much of today’s ideas within her writings from the 1940s.  Though I knew her little in her life, I learned much from her death.  Her notes act as interlocutors between the past and the present; through her words, I examine the ripple of changes within three generations.

When I perish, I hope people to learn things I would never speak.  When people delve into my personal notes, I want them to understand how I had questions as they do and to realize I felt as they felt, and, most importantly, I want people to examine the details of how Christ restored in my life.