My Answer: What Little Known Thing…

Thank-you for your colourful and heartfelt responses to the question I posed: what little-known thing would you like to be remembered for?

What is fascinating to me is that most of us singled out ordinary things that matter to us; what we are passionate about and our deep desire to learn and to love.

Sarah writes,

“I realise the things I’m most proud of are often completely unpaid and not on my CV.  I don’t talk about them either.”

MaryAnne speaks of being remembered for unselfishness and generosity when she was in need of these things herself.

And Joseph speaks of the people whose lives he helped put back together after they had life-changing injuries.  That is enough, he says.

Joseph is right. That is enough.  It is more than enough.

We should just get on purposefully with our lives or as the notebook cover says ‘Do Good Everyday’, because for many people, life itself can be a struggle.  I know it is for me.  Writing this series gives me the opportunity to imagine how I’d like Jane to be.  But Jane isn’t like this all of the time.  She can be petty and mean and small and demeaning.

As for my answer to the question about the little-known thing I’d like to be remembered for, I haven’t yet achieved it.  What I would like to say is that I was good at saying sorry.

The younger Jane, regarded apologising as a weakness.  I saw it as giving in.  My apologies were shallow and full of excuses.

Even now, it takes time to arrive at a point where I can make a wholehearted apology, which is one where I accept full responsibility.  I am a work in progress.

Most of us will never reach the heights of David Suchet with a glittering career forged by wonderful acting skills.  But I’m with him on remembering the smaller roles we play in our lives.  By searching deeply we might find something richer and possibly more exciting than our familiar, favourite Belgian detective.