Monday, September 12, 2005
Final Words
Rosebud...Rosebud.
These are the final words of John Foster Kane. Strange words for an ending. A rosebud is more readily associated with a beginning - a promise of full flowering, blossoms with heady perfume, their color and shape caressing our imaginations.
More typical final words are "The End" and "and they lived happily ever after."
I decided to Google some on the Internet.
"...shall not perish from the earth." contained over twenty thousand references, headlined by an ad for EHarmony.com, a dating service.
"...and they lived happily ever after." had nearly twenty seven thousand sites, led by one giving marital advice to women. Finding this track unpromising, I left the Internet.
Next I decided to review the final words in the pieces I had written for three semesters of this workshop. As I scanned each piece I was surprised at how many had last lines, which, when standing out of context, were banal and dull.
Some, however, were adequate to stand alone:
... he closed the grime covered window.
To be gone from memory is to be gone completely.
Dr. Pangloss, are you sure "This is the best of all possible worlds."?
I never go to meetings.
I was very poor growing up - unable to afford an immortal soul.
Urp!
That last is my favorite.
Christian religious works have a standard signal for the ending. "Amen." This word comes to us through Hebrew, Greek and Latin. It signals affirmation or concurrence. "Be it truly so."
As this piece comes to a close I find the need for its final words. Maybe one word will suffice.
Bye!
These are the final words of John Foster Kane. Strange words for an ending. A rosebud is more readily associated with a beginning - a promise of full flowering, blossoms with heady perfume, their color and shape caressing our imaginations.
More typical final words are "The End" and "and they lived happily ever after."
I decided to Google some on the Internet.
"...shall not perish from the earth." contained over twenty thousand references, headlined by an ad for EHarmony.com, a dating service.
"...and they lived happily ever after." had nearly twenty seven thousand sites, led by one giving marital advice to women. Finding this track unpromising, I left the Internet.
Next I decided to review the final words in the pieces I had written for three semesters of this workshop. As I scanned each piece I was surprised at how many had last lines, which, when standing out of context, were banal and dull.
Some, however, were adequate to stand alone:
... he closed the grime covered window.
To be gone from memory is to be gone completely.
Dr. Pangloss, are you sure "This is the best of all possible worlds."?
I never go to meetings.
I was very poor growing up - unable to afford an immortal soul.
Urp!
That last is my favorite.
Christian religious works have a standard signal for the ending. "Amen." This word comes to us through Hebrew, Greek and Latin. It signals affirmation or concurrence. "Be it truly so."
As this piece comes to a close I find the need for its final words. Maybe one word will suffice.
Bye!
