Thornton Wilder’s play, “Our Town,” is about the people of Grover’s Corners, a very rural, very quiet, very simple place. One of the people is “Emily” who, as you may recall dies in childbirth. In one scene, Emily is allowed to come back to earth and relive one day of her life. (Think about that! What one day would you choose: your wedding day or graduation day or the day one of the children was born?) Emily chose her twelfth birthday. It turned out to be a very disappointing experience. She came back and from her new perspective she saw that her parents whom she very much loved, and the other people in Grover’s Corners, were missing life. They had so much and they were missing it!
Emily says,
Just one more look. Goodbye world, goodbye Grover’s Corners. Goodbye mama and papa. Goodbye to clocks ticking and mama’s sunflowers and new-ironed dresses and hot baths, to sleeping and waking up. Oh earth you…
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