Circumstance

  I have done quite a bit of work on the family tree. It's an interesting pastime made easy by today's technology. Without Ancestry.com and the internet I surely wouldn't have "discovered" as much as I have. I particularly enjoy the old newspaper articles that I have stumbled across. The majority are obituaries but still, there are other articles, stories and tidbits to be found. How often are we mentioned in the papers? Most of us get little attention unless we have done something sensational, usually not in a good way. I have to say I haven't found anything terribly disturbing just a few minor "incidents" that could be chalked up to youth, alcohol, or plain old stupidity. Nothing very disturbing or sensational. I'm taking that as a good thing. Although I have noticed the increase in using the past to benefit you today whenever that is a possibility. Reparations they are calling that. Apologies aren't enough, we want the cash. And I'm not thinking solely of African Americans in that regard, entitlement knows no racial or ethnic boundaries.

  I was thinking about that after seeing another advertisement for a genealogical service or program. It may have been Ancestry.com or one of the others, I'm not certain. It concerned some celebrity discovering his roots. This celebrity was then exclaiming how he felt those ancestors all his life and how they had guided him through all his adversity. Yes, it was quite an endorsement for discovering your ancestors and how they related to you today. Well, all that is fine if that is what you wish to believe but I have a different view. I have gained nothing from distant ancestors. Only living people that I have interacted with have influenced me in any way. Whatever accomplishment or disappointments any of my ancestors may have had did not affect me in any way. Oh, I won't deny that there is some genetic inheritance, can't argue with science, but that is it as far as I'm concerned. To quote an individual that was what we would call "challenged" today "I've got all the sense the good lord saw fit to give me." That sums up my thoughts exactly. 

  Being proud of your ancestors is a good thing, a natural thing. There is nothing wrong with that. Claiming their accomplishments as your own however is quite a different action. To me, it is akin to stolen valor. It's a rather despicable thing to do. It was those ancestors that went through whatever it was or whatever they accomplished. You had absolutely nothing to do with that. Seeking some form of compensation, whether it is monetary, honorary or merely complimentary for that is just wrong. Apologies are only valid to the one that has been violated. Apologizing to their descendants does nothing at all. I have no authority to accept that on their behalf! It's too late for that. 

  We are all simply the result of circumstance. This notion that we can control any of this existence is simply wrong. We can't. I can't control what you or anyone else will do at any given moment. I can't control my circumstance. The only thing I can control is my reaction to the circumstance I find myself in. We often hear it said that we are the victim of circumstance. To believe that you have to first believe that you have somehow been wronged. To believe that you have to place blame on all those that came before, they are all complicit. I don't see it that way at all, they were just like me, reacting to circumstance. We create our condition, not our circumstance.

  I admit I have felt a bit of disappointment in not discovering some ancestor of note. That is to say, someone famous or something like that. Although I had many ancestors that served in the armed forces, since the beginning of the country, I've found no heroes. Everyone made it home from the battles they fought and went on to live normal lives. No big stories to tell. No, as near as I have been able to tell everyone just lived regular lives, going about their business along with everyone else. No one in my family tree suffered from extreme injustice or hardships that I know about. Just everyday people. I have wondered why we look for that, why we feel like we had anything to do with any of the past. 

  That celebrity I listened to was talking about feeling a connection to that past long before he was aware of that past. I'm skeptical about those claims. I have some Scandinavian blood in me but don't feel like a Viking. I have German ancestors but no desire to wear lederhosen or listen to oom-pah music. No, the only thing I feel are the things of my youth tugging at me. I feel my past, no one else's. It's a romantic notion, I get that, to identify with long lost ancestors but that's all it is, a notion. I'm not my father, grandfather, great grandfather or any other ancestor, I'm just me. But I am curious about those that came before, I would like to know about their lives. I see myself as the next chapter in a book. I'm just a part of the story. When will the story end? It will end with me if no one else reads the book. We can't tell what tomorrow will bring but we can read about yesterday. Perhaps that is the feeling we have. We are comparing ourselves to the past. Some would rewrite the story. Not me, I'm just trying to read the book. You can't change the past. You can learn from it, however. Thing is, not everything is a lesson, some things just happen that way. That's called circumstance.