When Everything Else is Gone, Stories Remain!
Aug 29, 2020 21:50:55 #
Have you ever reflected on the past, maybe a family reunion, a graduation or a funeral of a relative, and wonder where everyone has gone? Happen to be leafing through a family picture album and for a moment be transported back to a happier and carefree time?
There is little doubt that time passes, and events cannot be recaptured. Those intimate and warm happy times, once gone are hard to recreate. Places, parents, grandparents, houses, communities disappear over time. In my case, the entire community where I grew up is now a ghost town.
When I go back, in my minds eye, I can still see it as it was, but there is absolutely nothing remaining of the old home place or community. While I cannot adequately recreate this vision, but before Anglo farmers appeared in the late 1800’s, there was on the same land a thriving Native American population living there. No one knows, but from the burial sites in the area, they farmed, fished, and lived a good life along Red River.
Finally, all that is left are the burial sites, and true to this cycle of time, there is little left of the Anglo cycle except the cemetery situated on a low hill to mark the second wave of population, and after a number of years in the future, it too will recede into disrepair and be forgotten other than the weathered marble or granite stones marking the graves. When the grandchildren and great grandchildren pass from the stage of the living, this place will be abandoned because the following generations will forget with ease all that went before them.
Really, no one can blame these later generations, any more than those of the Native Americans who preceded them. So, what is left, Nothing? No, that is not exactly true, there are, or can be stories remaining. If those who remember and are diligent about preserving the stories passed on to them by their elders and relatives.
In my thinking, we owe it to our descendants to remember, preserve and perpetuate the family history and stories of the previous generations, and consider it a serious obligation and honor to do so. Whether your family left you any financial wealth or not, they did entrust you with a rich trove of memories, stories, and knowledge of things that deeply affected their lives; happy and sad times, cherished events that would be a shame to have been forgotten and allowed to disappear. I feel sure that past generations felt as strongly as we do about our lives, events and are willing to have them recorded for future posterity.
Due to the advances in science and technology, we are blessed with many more tools to make it convenient, as easy as possible to record and keep these events alive. There is no legitimate excuse for not taking advantage of these tools other than the lack of will and commitment. You don’t have to worry about everything being spelled correctly, that your grammar is perfect, all that can be corrected later. You just need to preserve the facts, the feelings, and events before they disappear forever. I often tell friends that most of us have outlived our expiration date and have no guarantee of even one more day. So, we should not dawdle, but get busy and do it!
So, when the community, the people, even the cemeteries are all gone, there is still one thing that can remain for decades, generations, and even centuries. That is your stories, they can have a miraculous never-ending life. All you must do is start to put them into some form or preservation so they will live for an eternity. Are you up to it? It’s not too late to start.
Just Sayin…RJS
There is little doubt that time passes, and events cannot be recaptured. Those intimate and warm happy times, once gone are hard to recreate. Places, parents, grandparents, houses, communities disappear over time. In my case, the entire community where I grew up is now a ghost town.
When I go back, in my minds eye, I can still see it as it was, but there is absolutely nothing remaining of the old home place or community. While I cannot adequately recreate this vision, but before Anglo farmers appeared in the late 1800’s, there was on the same land a thriving Native American population living there. No one knows, but from the burial sites in the area, they farmed, fished, and lived a good life along Red River.
Finally, all that is left are the burial sites, and true to this cycle of time, there is little left of the Anglo cycle except the cemetery situated on a low hill to mark the second wave of population, and after a number of years in the future, it too will recede into disrepair and be forgotten other than the weathered marble or granite stones marking the graves. When the grandchildren and great grandchildren pass from the stage of the living, this place will be abandoned because the following generations will forget with ease all that went before them.
Really, no one can blame these later generations, any more than those of the Native Americans who preceded them. So, what is left, Nothing? No, that is not exactly true, there are, or can be stories remaining. If those who remember and are diligent about preserving the stories passed on to them by their elders and relatives.
In my thinking, we owe it to our descendants to remember, preserve and perpetuate the family history and stories of the previous generations, and consider it a serious obligation and honor to do so. Whether your family left you any financial wealth or not, they did entrust you with a rich trove of memories, stories, and knowledge of things that deeply affected their lives; happy and sad times, cherished events that would be a shame to have been forgotten and allowed to disappear. I feel sure that past generations felt as strongly as we do about our lives, events and are willing to have them recorded for future posterity.
Due to the advances in science and technology, we are blessed with many more tools to make it convenient, as easy as possible to record and keep these events alive. There is no legitimate excuse for not taking advantage of these tools other than the lack of will and commitment. You don’t have to worry about everything being spelled correctly, that your grammar is perfect, all that can be corrected later. You just need to preserve the facts, the feelings, and events before they disappear forever. I often tell friends that most of us have outlived our expiration date and have no guarantee of even one more day. So, we should not dawdle, but get busy and do it!
So, when the community, the people, even the cemeteries are all gone, there is still one thing that can remain for decades, generations, and even centuries. That is your stories, they can have a miraculous never-ending life. All you must do is start to put them into some form or preservation so they will live for an eternity. Are you up to it? It’s not too late to start.
Just Sayin…RJS
Aug 29, 2020 22:53:11 #
Did you write that yourself?. It is amazing when you think about it. Man's life is but a span before the worm gettith him eh?
Aug 29, 2020 23:22:25 #
well then hoss...i mean robert... when you got enough for your own library...better get on that dewy decimal system so everyone can find your best ones.
Aug 29, 2020 23:44:47 #
Hello, you can call me Hoss, or Pistol, or almost anything, but alway be sure to call me for dinner. Yep! i confess, I wrote it, and you might find "Why I hate Party Telephone Lines!" an example of an embarrasing story. Some of these are the best.
I have published one book, My Stories, and the second, My Stories II, is in the finishing stages and should be printed in the next month or so. Thanks for your kind words! Just Sayin...RJS
I have published one book, My Stories, and the second, My Stories II, is in the finishing stages and should be printed in the next month or so. Thanks for your kind words! Just Sayin...RJS
Aug 30, 2020 00:52:16 #
Very good writing sir. You must know where I got that line of mine then. One of the greatest books ever written!
Aug 31, 2020 00:02:30 #
Someday you and I will be gone
But lullabyes go on and on and on and on
They will never die
And that's how you and I
Will be.
Billy Joel - Lullaby
But lullabyes go on and on and on and on
They will never die
And that's how you and I
Will be.
Billy Joel - Lullaby
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