faith unfaded

People tend to remember our splashiest moments, whether good or bad. Truth is, we are more defined by the quiet moments in between.

Besides, headlines can be quite misleading.

I told my dad last night that Kathleen Turner had died. I sat down today to pen a tribute to the woman who brought us Peggy Sue and Helena Handbasket. First I wanted to look up her filmography and birthplace.

Imagine my surprise when she appeared to be alive and well. Why had I read that she’d died?

I remembered quickly. I’d logged into my laptop yesterday, saw an article titled ‘Remembering Kathleen Turner’ and momentarily grieved her loss, and moved on. I never clicked on the article.

Had I read it, I’d have seen that it was a retrospective of her life. A beautiful tribute to a living legend—albeit with a poorly worded title.

I wondered how often we do that to other people and situations. We catch the headline without bothering to dig deeper, then create unfair and inaccurate assumptions. We unknowingly spread untrue information.

Kathleen Turner is alive and well. Peggy Sue Got Married is one of the greatest movies of all time.

And people deserve more than being defined by a headline.