Envoi is not a word that we see or hear often. In fact, I don’t ever remember using it. My British editor suggested it to conclude my book Miami Memoirs (available on Amazon and gets five stars).
I believe that envoi is a final statement, a summation, concluding words. So, at the end we look back to find meaning. Like Aesop, there’s a message, sometimes hidden.
My friend George Case went to denial saying some wild things in his life never happened. George Hamway showed me that well-meaning gestures can backfire when he got a dose from a hooker that I supplied. Marcella lusted her life away spending her money on young men. The great wine story of Ray Good tells us that life can be a beautiful circle with the creation of my son’s life symbolized with the opening of the first bottle of wine from the rack to the celebration of Ray’s wife’s death and the drinking of the final bottle.
So, envoi is involved in the ending of things, death and dying. That leads me to think of closing rituals, to funerals and memorials and back to candles which symbolize the conquering of darkness with light, illuminating the spirit and to many a holy experience. There are candlelight vigils and candlelight marches. We put candles on cakes and celebrate birthdays and anniversaries. Then we make a wish and blow out the candles. We place them on the elegant dinner table along with flowers and wine. Very romantic. What about some of those perfume candles that are placed around your bathtub with the lights turned off?
Lighting a candle in church may express our devotion and reverence and becomes a part of one’s prayers. Lighting a candle is a part of remembrance. President Biden walked down an isle of candles, one for each person killed in the recent Texas school shooting.
It all starts with the flame which I am told, Prometheus stole from the gods and gave to us. Thus fire, processions, rituals and memorials. The eternal flame is kept lit next to the Torah, or holy scriptures, in Judaism, to express the presence of God. We have eternal flames at The Arch d’ Triumph in Paris, President Kennedy’s grave, The Memorial to War Heroes in Russia, The Victims of 9/11 and the building in which the Confederacy met in Macon, Georgia. What about the Olympic flame and Lady Liberty’s torch on the Statue of Liberty? You used to be able to climb up there through a very narrow twisting staircase in the arm, but they closed it. The torch was to express “Liberty Enlightening the World.” By the way, all of these flames go out from time to time. The Olympic flame isn’t lit until two months before the games. So here comes the envoi of this blog.
Maybe we should light a candle for Aesop who, if he really existed, started as a slave in Ancient Greece and becomes famous for his six hundred fables. He is awarded citizenship but has a flawed personal life and is charged with stealing a valuable cup. He was executed by being thrown off a cliff. Poor Aesop. One of his lessons was that “You cannot escape your fate.”
All life ends. Death is inevitable. Enjoy Envoi. ~ Lewis