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Writer's pictureNora Walsh Kerr

Forever Soup



On July 4th, while we sit back in our lawn chairs watching the fireworks light up the sky and eat our grilled hotdogs, what we’re really celebrating is America's legacy and the people and events that have brought us to where we are. As we added stars to our flag and the nation grew, our history grew with it, creating a cultural stew full of ingredients, both good and bad, that defines society.


At Memoir for Me, we think a lot about legacy; what people bring with them from previous generations, and what they pass along to the next. Think of your life story as an ingredient in a forever soup. Common in medieval cuisine, forever soup is a type of stew where ingredients are replenished as needed. The stew changes with time and the pot never empties. With every new ingredient, a new flavor emerges. Every story you hear, every song you listen to, the people you meet… it all goes in to the soup pot that defines us.


Trevor Noah discussed this concept during a recent interview, which stopped me in my tracks:


“I find myself thinking, why has this life been given to us? We are literally a continuation of the previous generation. It’s an ongoing conversation with existence and you are just being asked to carry it on. I can never take the credit for where I am now, because I am a continuation of the conversation that my grandmother, and then my mother has been having with existence since the dawn of time, and I’m just carrying it on. It's coded into my DNA. It comes through my culture, it comes through my people. All of these ingredients made me who I am. I’m merely continuing something that started long before me.”


Take this holiday as an opportunity to not only celebrate America’s legacy, but to reflect on your own. Our quirks, behaviors, phrases, and everyday actions are often adopted from those we love. You are contributing ingredients in an ever-evolving recipe. What would like to add to the stew?

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