History Lesson

  “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” - George Santayana probably knew what he was talking about from first-hand experience. His saying could be applied to Nations as well as to individuals. If you fail to keep in mind past mistakes, you will inevitably repeat them. If you don’t keep in mind mistakes made by your parents, you will inevitably make the same ones in your own life. Nations that ignore the mistakes made by other Nations in the past are doomed to go the same way as their forbearers did. If the U.S. forgets how Rome fell, it is doomed to the same fate and will likewise fall. So, it is pretty frightening to see how ignorant our young people are of History. To them, it doesn’t matter what a bunch of crusty old men did a thousand years ago or even two hundred years ago. They worry more about what one of the Kardashians did last night and quickly forget what they did a month ago. Like I said, it’s a very disturbing trend. Our young people care very little for History, Geography, Math or Science. Knowing this, it would be very easy to just throw up our hands and accept our inevitable doom. But there is always hope that future trends will change things. History can’t be lost by one generation, or can it?

  Another thing that concerns me that seems to parallel this trend is our younger generation’s lack of interest in their own family’s history. Many of our children don’t know or care who their great-grandparents are much less about anyone who lived before they were born. If they have family who lives far off or in another state, they aren’t even inclined to travel to see and know them. And it’s not just the younger generation. I have members of my own family that have never shown any interest in going to see and getting to know the people who make up their extended family. I guess I have visited and gotten to know more people in my extended family than anyone else. And they are such warm and wonderful people who I’ve grown to love and respect over the years. I have sat and listened to my Uncle Edward’s stories of how it was long ago and loved hearing his stories of this relative or that. Those stories are gone now. Lost forever to the current generations. Uncle Edward’s wife, my aunt Ruth, was the kindest, sweetest woman I’ve ever met. With her death, I now only have cousins left alive in Arkansas. At least I know some of them and love them like brothers and sisters. We share a common heritage. But it’s sad that no one else in my Texas family has that bond with them except my mother, and she is quickly losing her memory of even me.

  I still have an Aunt in Louisiana, my Aunt Ruby (Bee), who is the last connection we have to the older generation of my father’s family. A couple of my brothers and I went to visit her recently and had a wonderful time. I don’t even want to think about the time when that connection is also lost to us. I feel History slipping away and guilty that I haven’t been taking notes. Another sad thing is that all the cousins don’t seem to be anywhere as close to each other as their parents were to each other. And our children don’t even know most of their cousins. I can see the day coming when brother will not even remember or care about brother or sister. You hear so much said about Nuclear Families. Where only husband, wife, and their one or two kids know and care about each other. Even the neighbors are strangers to them.

  How much further can this pendulum swing? Will we all become strangers, one to another? Will we perhaps surround and isolate ourselves with our technology? Will we abandon human compassion altogether and merge with our machines? If you look around with opened eyes, you can see all the signs of that day coming. I say that at that point, Human History will have ended. We will, at that point, have become something else entirely. I don’t know about you, but I will hold on tight to my Human History. And I will hold on even tighter to my Family History. Because without that – without human compassion and family connections – History is a long sad tale told by madmen with no future, no promise, and no purpose. My hope and prayers are that our Father in Heaven will come and take us all before that day arrives. And then how glorious it will be in Heaven to be with and know all our ken and loved ones from all the way back to the beginning of History. How awesome it will be to see firsthand how we are all ken one to another and all connected as one big family who can love and cherish one another for the rest of time.