© 2024 WNIJ and WNIU
Northern Public Radio
801 N 1st St.
DeKalb, IL 60115
815-753-9000
Northern Public Radio
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

There's A Better Word For How It All Ends

 

Conclusion. The end. Resolution. Finale.  

 

Blah-blah-blah. 

 

I prefer this word:  denouement.  

 

 

Means the same thing — but on a grander scale. A beautiful word for a beautiful moment. It’s a word that’s threaded into every book, movie, play or narrative that tells a story.  

 

It’s that moment when everything comes together. When you get the message. When the plot untwists. 

 
 

Suddenly the story has meaning and purpose, even if the purpose is just for fun. 

 
Sometimes I see the denouement as the ah-ha moment, when I see the big picture, the message.  Apologies to Webster, but that’s how I define the word. 

 

So, here’s my question: If your life is a story, a story you write each day, what will be your denouement? 

 

Actually, I do not see life as a story we write but is more a narrative — a current — we are caught up in. Like a river, ever flowing, ending somewhere, with lots of stuff — and other people — in between.  

 
I’m not sure we control that river. We just navigate. And that’s our story. And there will be a denouement.  

 
I suppose our life stories end when breathing stops. But the denouement is within the bigger story we leave behind. The ah-ha moment when you can say, yeah, that’s what my story is all about.  

 
I suppose my story will end with a detailed eulogy — a resume of the what, the how and the when. But I am hoping my denouement — the ah-ha moment — will reveal the who.  

 
I’m working to make that who a decent character … in a story that will remain on the shelf. 
 

Now that would be great denouement. A beautiful word for a beautiful moment. 

 

I’m Lonny Cain … and that’s my Perspective. 

 
 

 

Related Stories