People who know me well know I adore Douglas Coupland and his novels. I was walking home and was thinking about all sorts of things after bookgroup this evening and a thought/memory popped into my head.
After hunting through the Coupland novels on the shelf I finally found where the thought popped from.
Generation X is an awesome novel. Won't talk about content here save for this little bit.
In the chapter called "Remember Earth Clearly" (it's actually the very very end of the last chapter and straddles into the next) Elvissa asks Tobias for a story:
"I want you to tell me something first: after you're dead and buried and floating around whatever place we go to, what's going to be your best memory of earth? [...] What one moment for you defines what it's like to be alive on this planet? What's your takeaway? [...] Fake yuppie experiences that you had to spend money on, like white water rafting or elephant rides in Thailand don't count. I want to hear some small moment from your life that proves you're really alive."
The characters in the novel give their examples in the chapter "Remember Earth Clearly" and I realised what one of my takeaways would be.
For me it's a song and how the song happened. I was driving with my parents and my nephews, Malachi, Thomas and Jojo, to the park. It was a lovely clear day and my parents had put on a kids CD to listen to. Malachi knew all the words to all the songs. Randomly one of the songs was "Close To You" by the Carpenters, a song that I respond to and enjoy singing. So Malachi and I sang the song together, word perfect, and I closed my eyes as the sun sliced the back of the car golden.
That's my takeaway.
What's yours?
