Falls Has Landed

Mr Newman has ended.

I've just finished re-reading most of the Little House On The Prairie books. I had to stop.

Those who have read The Lord Of The Rings must know the feeling well. The wrenching nostalgia of the story ending, having to leave the characters behind, knowing nothing would ever be the same, desperately wishing things could go on unchanged forever.

The Little House's books always have the same impact on me. Unlike TLOTR, it's a real story, so you can grab comfort from searching deeper what happened to the beloved characters. But like TLOTR, things change never to return. And like every real story, the end is always the same: everybody dies in the end.

I must be having a "facing death" moment like Marie had recently.

I am fascinated, these days, by this phenomenon: a loving family. And yes, it used to happen even "back then".

A loving, involved, benevolent father.

A loving, steadfast mother.

Happy children.

Exemples? Sure.

Brought to us through writings: Charles and Caroline Ingalls, and the children: Mary, Laura, Carrie and Grace.

Brought to us through paintings: Carl and Karin Larsson, and the children: Suzanne, Ulf, Pontus, Lisbeth, Brita, Kersti and Esbjorn.

                                          Karin and Kersti.

See the steady, open look of Karin, straight into the eyes of her husband and partner? I've seen the very same look on photographs of the modern day family that is my third example, but whose name and pictures I will not post to preserve their privacy.

I'm not saying things were never hard for them, they were. But at the heart of it all, the Family remained as the very core of their purpose.

Children grow up, families burst so that the seeds start a new family all over again. So knowing it is not destined to last, there is a magical moment, frozen in time, covering a few years, of two loving parents raising young children.

And maybe, as I passed it by, do I only now, when it's too late, discover that this might be really what it's ALL about. This whole Life charade.