My Legacy

I was watching a segment of “The Waltons” tonight, and one of the two story lines involved “Livy” Walton’s talent for painting. 

She enters several of her landscapes in a local art show; only to miss out on a “First Place” ribbon. However, minutes later the director of the art show informs her that an anonymous dealer has purchased all of her paintings, and presents her with the cash dividends.

As this segment winds down, and Olivia happens to be looking through her attic, she chances upon the paintings which, supposedly, had been sold to the art dealer. 

Mystified, and miffed at the same time, she accuses her husband of buying the paintings to feed her ego. John denies having bought the pictures, but as the broadcast concludes her father in law confesses. It is a poignant conversation, indeed.

“Livy, I’m the one who bought the paintings, not John.”

“Oh grandpa, why would you do something like that? If you wanted them that much, I would have given them to you.”

“I know you would have, Livy. But I bought them as a legacy of what our mountain here looked like in our day and time. This is something I want to leave to grandchildren’s grandchildren.

(and)

If you had given the paintings to me, well, they wouldn’t be MY legacy; don’t you see?”

I can so well relate to the object and the concept.

For you see, my dad was a landscape artist, and a very good one. I suppose he painted hundreds of full-sized oil paintings in his day, and sold many of them. I am fortunate to own five, and they grace the walls of my home. And though my father has “traveled on” now, his paintings are one of several facets of the legacy he left us.

Like my father, I am busy “leaving something behind.” Oh, I’m not a painter, but I have written numerous, (thus far unpublished) volumes, and I am strongly involved in family research; all of which I have been accumulating for the day that I am past tense, and it might be said of me, (as it may be said of my father)

“He was…”

By William McDonald, PhD. Excerpt from "(Mc)Donald's Daily Diary" Vol. 18. Copyright pending

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