I have quite the collection of photographs hanging on my walls. I am fortunate that I have a great deal of the older ones handed down to me for safekeeping. I'm also lucky to have a wife that indulges this habit of mine, I just love having all those ancestors on the wall. I have been working on the family tree for a number of years and can identify who is who. I haven't sent off for one of those DNA test kits yet but most likely will some time in the future. That part of it is only of a casual interest to me. Yes it could provide some information that could be of use. I'm not that interested to know where all my ancestors may come from or, at the least, who they may have slept with. Genetics doesn't define a person. Something I believe too many people are getting confused about these days. But I'm not going to go into all of that right now.
The other day I decided to rearrange those photos on the wall. I had put them up in what I envisioned as a casual setting. I didn't want it to look like I had hung them all at the same time so they were scattered about. Anyway, I took them all down and rehung them somewhat according to size and in pretty much a straight line. I wasn't so involved that I got out the level and all that, but they are somewhat ordered now. You know how it gets when you get accustomed to things a certain way ? How you don't pay much attention. After rearranging them I am drawn to them again. It's the same people, it just that they have moved. What's more they have new neighbors. I find myself looking at them and calculating their relationship to one another. Whereas in the past Great Grandmother may have been next to my Aunt she is now next to my cousin ! Really it is a mental exercise to figure out how one is related to the other. There are maternal and paternal connections to be made. Included on my wall are my grand nieces and nephews, grandchildren, and third great grandparents of mine. Seven generations are represented ! Of course some of these folks are my wife's' family as well. Her sisters and brothers are in the mix. Why you could say it is a regular catalogue of ancestors and descendants. I believe I have counted forty six pictures on those walls and that is just a mere sampling of the family tree. You really aren't aware of just how many direct relatives you have until you start counting.
I do enjoy these photographs. Many of them are people I knew or have known. I look at them and remember places and times. There are a number of pictures of people I never knew. They were either distant by time or location. I look at those pictures and imagine. What were they like ? They don't seem as ghosts to me, more like they are waiting. I do think I will meet them all one day. I'll have an eternity to do that. For now it is a challenge to remember all their names and their relationship to me. To some they are just pictures on the wall, but not to me. Pictures contain our mortality. As long as the photograph exists, so too the person. If you can call them by name, they surely live.
The other day I decided to rearrange those photos on the wall. I had put them up in what I envisioned as a casual setting. I didn't want it to look like I had hung them all at the same time so they were scattered about. Anyway, I took them all down and rehung them somewhat according to size and in pretty much a straight line. I wasn't so involved that I got out the level and all that, but they are somewhat ordered now. You know how it gets when you get accustomed to things a certain way ? How you don't pay much attention. After rearranging them I am drawn to them again. It's the same people, it just that they have moved. What's more they have new neighbors. I find myself looking at them and calculating their relationship to one another. Whereas in the past Great Grandmother may have been next to my Aunt she is now next to my cousin ! Really it is a mental exercise to figure out how one is related to the other. There are maternal and paternal connections to be made. Included on my wall are my grand nieces and nephews, grandchildren, and third great grandparents of mine. Seven generations are represented ! Of course some of these folks are my wife's' family as well. Her sisters and brothers are in the mix. Why you could say it is a regular catalogue of ancestors and descendants. I believe I have counted forty six pictures on those walls and that is just a mere sampling of the family tree. You really aren't aware of just how many direct relatives you have until you start counting.
I do enjoy these photographs. Many of them are people I knew or have known. I look at them and remember places and times. There are a number of pictures of people I never knew. They were either distant by time or location. I look at those pictures and imagine. What were they like ? They don't seem as ghosts to me, more like they are waiting. I do think I will meet them all one day. I'll have an eternity to do that. For now it is a challenge to remember all their names and their relationship to me. To some they are just pictures on the wall, but not to me. Pictures contain our mortality. As long as the photograph exists, so too the person. If you can call them by name, they surely live.
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after
Excuse the mess, that's my little corner and I like it that way.
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