RIVER CITY JOURNAL: WORDS ON THE WALLS -- AND IT'S NOT EVEN GRAFFITI

Over the years, our home has collected sayings that mean so much to us we put them where we can always see them.

The recent move my wife and I made has meant arranging our new nest to suit us. We ought to be experts. This was our 16th move in 32 years of marriage.

My wife is, perhaps because of so many opportunities to turn bare walls and floors into expressions of our personal tastes, a pretty darn good interior decorator. She has an eye for blending colors and shapes and styles to make almost any space an eye-pleaser. More than that, she wants our home to be a place we enjoy and are comfortable in. I'm happy if I can find the can opener within a month after a move.

As with any project that involves spouses, our home-decoration binge of the past couple of weeks has been a joint effort: She tells me what to do. I do it. It's an age-old formula that I heartily recommend.

Over the years we have accumulated a lot of stuff to go on the walls of our living spaces. Some of it you could even call art. The rest is important because it is meaningful to us in one way or the other: The boys made it, a friend gave it to us, we found it together.

I noticed, as I drove nails into the freshly painted plaster, that many of our wall hangings have words on them. I guess that's natural for a couple of word people, both English majors in college, who enjoy a well-turned phrase as much as a piece of music or a fine sculpture.

The words on our walls are important to us, and sometimes even visitors are taken with what they read, at eye level, standing in our living room or hallway or bedroom or kitchen.

One of the first wall hangings we bought, early in our marriage, was a long, wooden placard that said simply: "Poverty Is No Crime." It was a 1960s statement, and it certainly seemed to apply to our finances at the time. That placard has been on display in our home most of those years, but for some reason it has been relegated to basement storage this time around. Lives change. So do the statements we want to make on our walls.

Without any planning, several of our wall hangings are in the form of cross-stitching. At one time, every young girl was expected to produce a sampler of her cross-stitch art, and antique shops now fetch good prices for them. A pair of small, framed cross-stitch proverbs were among the first in our collection. They hang next to the front door. One says:

"Joy be with you while you stay."

And its companion says:

"Peace be with you on your way."

Several years ago a good friend of my wife's gave her this cross-stitch prize:

"Who hath a friend with whom to share

"Hath double cheer and half of care."

Just a couple of years ago, I found this one at an antique shop here in Cape Girardeau just in time for my wife's birthday:

"We pledge our all in solemn vow & look to God above

"To bless the ties that bind our hearts eternally in love."

It has a special place on our bedroom wall.

On the piano in our living room is this small placard my wife found for me:

"Life is like a piano. What you get out of it depends on how you play it."

And on the wall above the piano is a beautiful example of calligraphy:

"I count myself in nothing else so happy

"As in a soul rememb'ring my good friends."

That's from Shakespeare's "Richard II."

Another early one that found its way into our home many years ago was this:

"Be thou of good cheer. A good laugh is sunshine in the house."

It is attributed to Thackery.

The best -- just like dessert -- I've saved for last.

When our now-grown sons completed first grade four years apart, their teachers had them write something to display their printing abilities. My wife, of course had them framed, and they are in our kitchen now. Here's the one from older son:

"May 20, 1977

"Dear Mom and Dad,

"Today is the last day of my year in first grade. This year I have learned to read and to add and subtract. This is written in my very best handwritting.

"Jason Patrick Sullivan"

Except for one spelling error, it is perfect. The block letters look like the examples over blackboards in most elementary schools. The grammar and punctuation are correct. It is, in short, the work of a budding lawyer. Today, Jason is a medical researcher in Boston and a world traveler. He never writes home. But his first-grade sampler is prominently displayed.

The writing sample from younger son is an expression of a child's feelings for his mother. Today, Brendan -- who calls home faithfully every week -- is a pilot and writes training manuals for pilots of military aircraft. Thank goodness for computer spelling programs, but I doubt there is any mom who wouldn't be touched by this:

"Maryville, Mo., May 5, 1981

"Dear Mrs. Mom,

"I love fossils! But! When it gums to you mom I go wild!

"Love, Bren"

From the perspective of an English teacher, this one gets about C-minus. But for enthusiasm and heart, it gets an A-plus from Mom.

And a special place on the kitchen wall.

~R. Joe Sullivan is the editor of the Southeast Missourian.