Who Tells Your Story?

I have a confession. I am a HUGE fan of the Broadway show Hamilton. Which is odd, since I haven’t actually seen the Broadway show Hamilton. But I listen to the music, pretty much constantly. I listen to it on my runs. While I’m cleaning the house. Even in the car with my confused boyfriend.

“It’s a show about Alexander Hamilton?” he asks. “The guy on the $10 bill? And there’s…rapping?”

Yes, dear. Exactly.

There’s one particular song, “Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story,” that I always have to focus on. It’s a song with enough weight that I can’t do anything else when it comes on. It hits me every time, and I have to process it.

Think about it.

Wonder what it means for me.

It’s a song about legacy. About what happens when you’re gone. Who will continue the narrative. And the line that always makes me gasp a little…

But when you’re gone, who remembers your name?
Who keeps your flame?

I believe that we all have a narrative that we’re living out. I do not live in a vacuum. My choices affect others. I can only hope in more positive ways than negative.

The song is a reminder of what I already know. That I am placed here to make this world a better place. To carry the flame placed inside of me. To love others. To share the Light.

So I smile at a stranger.

I write a letter to a hurting friend.

I tell a little girl living in poverty that there is more to this life than darkness.

I bake a cake. Just because.

Not because I want the name “Brandy” remembered.

But because I want the name “Jesus” remembered.