For my 60th birthday, my oldest son, Matthew, and his family gave me a gift through Storyworth that will give me the exciting opportunity to “create a life story book your family will treasure.” I encourage you to check out the organization, ponder the question above, and share your answers with someone you love. As I get started on the project, I thought I’d share some of my responses to their writing prompts on this platform this year.
The first question they sent me is the title of our blog, and my answer is below.
Besides the obvious choices of loved ones and my dog, I might grab the keys to a vehicle or my wallet to more easily establish my identity on the other side of the fire. Beyond that, it’s a tough question.
It’s also an interesting question. I might want to save important things I’ve written or certain books, but in our digital age, most of our favorite writings and photos can be restored within seconds via the Cloud. Most books within hours or days thanks to Amazon.
Honestly, as long as no one I loved was hurt, I’m not sure a fire could take as much from me as it might from others. I’m an ideas guy more than a things guy, and ideas can’t be burned up like possessions. Not being attached to material things, I’m quite clear on a truth I first heard the late Keith Green put into words forty years ago:
“Nothing lasts except the grace of God by which I stand in Jesus.”
But don’t get me wrong: Although I have little attachment to material possessions, I certainly still have attachment issues when it comes to what Arthur Brooks calls “fame’s insidious cousins: prestige and admiration—the favorable attention of people who ‘matter.’”[1] I share this just to make sure we’re all clear that I’m still a work in progress. Or to say it differently, I don’t want my honest answer to the fire question to be viewed as some badge of spiritual growth.
These wandering thoughts aside, let me speak directly to the “what would I save…” question. Aside from loved ones, my dog, and possibly my wallet, phone, and a computer, I think the one thing that I would save is a dingy beer mug that sits on a shelf in my study.
Why, you ask? Well, it’s dingy and tarnished, but looks can be deceiving. Indeed, if you took the time to research and polish this blackened mug, you’d find that it’s actually a 19th-century English, sterling, solid silver, engraved, tankard mug from the Victorian era. It’s a tavern mug with beautiful floral patterns on it, and it’s special to me for several reasons:
- It’s from 1879, commemorating a special occasion, and was a gift to my great-grandfather, George Iden Austen, on October 24, from two friends with the initials W. & S. H.
- It’s a connection to my British family roots, including the legacy of learning, writing, and insight associated with Jane Austen.
- It’s a beer mug, associated not with royalty or self-importance, but the humility of being a common person. Additionally, being raised in toxic fundamentalism, where all beer-drinkers were viewed as lost or “unsaved,” it reminds me, as Brandi Carlile sings, of “a road I’ve left behind.”[2]
- It symbolizes many of the unsung treasures of a happy life that the book of Ecclesiastes extols: love, acceptance, food, drink, relationships, friendship, listening conversations—all simple gifts celebrated and enjoyed around a table.
[1] Arthur C. Brooks, From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life (Penguin, 2022), 71-72.
[2] A lyric from the song “Most of All” from the 2018 album By the Way, I Forgive You.