THE SEVENTH GENERATION

He was standing in the hall when I opened the door. I recognized him at once. He had gone to high school with me in Cass Lake. He was dressed entirely in black and carried a small black book. He was not particularly friendly but he was cordial. "Have you been saved?" he asked. "Yes, I think so," I replied. "But you're not sure?" "I believe God is good and will take me to that good place when it's time to leave." "You believe but can you be certain that you're good enough?" "No, I'm sure no one is good enough but God is good enough." "If you don't know the time or place of your salvation then you are not saved." Immediately I was standing with that same person on a corner in Cass Lake in front of the old Deep Rock Oil Co. "Look!" he shouted, "this is where I was saved." Suddenly I was surrounded by a mob of people in black all holding their small books toward me and shouting, "I was saved right here!" In the next heartbeat I was in my flat with a woman I seemed to know but am unable to identify. She was very friendly and I was glad to see her. "You must come to the wake," she said. "Who died?" I asked. "The seventh generation." "What? All of them?" I gasped. I couldn't understand why she was so cheerful. "Yes. All of them. They want you to come to the wake and speak." I was devastated. "I cannot. What would I say?" "Oh, you must come and honor them. They have been speaking of you for seven years." Then I thought to myself, How can you refuse? The woman was holding a blue dress before me. "You must wear this. And you must cover it with this coat." The coat looked exactly like the dress except it was split up the front. "Put it on and come. They are waiting for you." I woke up with those clothes still hanging before me in the darkness of the flat. I was so troubled by the dream that I could not sleep. I got up and wrote it down as it seemed important. I felt that I had been told that I had failed the seventh generation. I had not spoken to them or for them until it was too late. Is it too late? I ask myself. What can I say? Do I have any particular obligation to these young people? What is my personal responsibility to them?