Back when I graduated from high school, one of my father’s cousins gave me a copy of an extremely readable book of anecdotes called Emerson in Concord, written by my great-great grandfather about his legendary father.
One of my favorite parts is the revelation that Emerson’s famous aphorism Always do what you are afraid to do was actually an admonition from his fierce Aunt Mary, who helped his mother raise the children after his father died when RWE was eight.
Emerson passed along this advice to his own children, and they to theirs. And here it finds me standing in my parents’ doorway in Greensboro. Walk into the house where her dead body waits. Watch your father weep.
Enter the scene. Imagine it as your own.