Some of you have surely traced your family history back into the long ago. The following might ring a bell with you:
THE FAMILY TREE
We are told that nothing around us can be understood unless we know what has gone before, what led us to where we are, and how and why.
So we devour the stacks of books that relate the fascinating tale of dreadful wars that no one wanted, of flight in search of a better life.
We are then led, some uf us, to go beyond the general story to look for the part, however small, our forefathers played on this stage.
The trail takes us back, first of all, to the generation of our parents and to the way of the world in their time; then on, and on, as far as the record goes.
Often, we bump up against a wall, seemingly impenetrable, but if we persevere, we may pick up the thread in some wholly unexpected place.
Some remote cousin may emerge and produce evidence of a birth, a death, a marriage, that opens up a path known only to a very few.
Going back along the family line gives new meaning to what might otherwise be nothing much beyond a recitation of place-names and dates.
It gives new meaning to an old war if one knows that a man with his name was among those in uniform alongside Grant, or Pershing, or Washington.
It may even help to explain the way we behave, that much of what we do may be traceable to a genetic pattern established in the distant past.
Whatever we learn, whether we turn up statesmen or horse thieves, we can be thankful that the line leads down to where we are today.
-- Francis B. Kent May 2012
Re: A Look Back
Posted by CLARENCE RUTHERFORD on May 21, 2012, 11:07 pm, in reply to "A Look Back"
HOW INTERESTING, FRAN,...THANK YOU FOR WRITING. YES, WE ALL TEND TO WANT TO KNOW WHERE WE CAME FROM,AND THIS POEM EXPRESSES OUR FEELINGS SO WELL.
MY WIFE IS A POET, &, SHE FOUND THIS TO BE SO MUCH A PART OF EACH OF US, EVEN THOUGH WE MAY NOT BE AWARE OF IT.
KEEP WRITING, FRAN,...YOU DO IT SO WELL!
CLARENCE
Re: A Look Back
Posted by Al Burnham on May 28, 2012, 1:47 pm, in reply to "Re: A Look Back"
This was another great poem Fran. That hit it right on. I still have contact with friends and relatives back in Maine. Surprising all the conversation on who is a relative.---Al