I'm keying on a post made by Euripides, whose blog I follow.We did not arrive here unaided. Countless others came before us and passed on their characteristics to us through both DNA and through traditions we inherited through our families. Every one is different, every one unique. Every one is precious.
How can you truly understand who you are without understanding who they were?
Most Americans trace their personal histories to people who came here from somewhere else.
Why did they do that? - What drew them here?
- What value did they see in the new world that was somehow lacking in the old one?
- In leaving their homes, what did they give up and why did they do it?
- What was important to them and should it also be important to us?
Until you have examined those questions, it's difficult to know who you are.
My family tree came from many lands to root itself where I am today. Every single person who did that came because there was not so much freedom where they were as there was in the land where they were going.
None of my ancestors were homosexual. If they had been, I wouldn't be here. No offense to homosexual readers, but homosexuals by nature do not reproduce and leave a legacy.
At times I ask myself whether or not my ancestors would be proud of me. If they would see themselves in me and feel vindicated. From my considerable study of same, I found that most lived lives marked by honesty, hard work, duty to country, duty to God, duty to family. They were the bricks and mortar who built the foundation of what we as a society now enjoy.
Taking a moment to reflect on these things helps me build resolve to protect the legacy they left me.
4 comments:
Is that you on the upper left?
Americans are by nature rugged individualists. The ones who retain the frontier spirit, that is.
I'm afraid the little boy on the upper left lived and died over a hundred years before I was born.
To quote from Pirates of Penzance: "I don't know whose ancestors they were, but I know whose ancestors they are!"
Which has nothing to do with anything except to also note that Americans seem to have very short memories. Layer that on top of rampant relativism and you've got a recipe where Americans only know if they are coming or going when Obama tells them.
I love your blog today! Odd that I was sending my son some of our family history a few short hours ago and I got to thinking and wondering if I have made a bit of difference or if I would have made my ancestors proud. I am curious if I have touched an individuals life and left somewhat of a foundation in this quicksand we call progress. Tick, tick, tick...
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