I know it's cliché, but there's no other way to say it - this really has been an amazing journey. I honestly don't know why I felt so compelled to explore the lives of my Bedford County ancestors in such depth, but I'm really glad I did it. I'm a better person for it.
I think we instinctively want to sugar coat and kind of glamorize our ancestral past, thinking that is the best way to show respect for those that came before. I didn't do that. Obviously. I guess my way of thinking would go like this: if I lived several generations before, and I made mistakes, as we all do, if I had character traits that were far less than perfect, if I bought into tradition and culture that ultimately harmed those I loved, that filled them with pain and loneliness and suffering and sadness and despair, that undermined the whole eternal plan of caring for those I'm supposed to love and nurture, and if it were possible that someone could lay out the big picture from generation to generation so that current and future members of my family could see very clearly exactly where I went wrong and what caused pain and suffering to prevail, and I could actually, posthumously warn and protect my future flesh and blood from repeating my mistakes, why wouldn't I want to do that?
It's also so important to realize that no one generation acts alone. Everyone begins life as a child of imperfect parents. Every generation is influenced by the circumstances, experiences, and choices of the one before, complicated even more by all the people they choose to bring into their lives. It's a never ending chain of very complicated relationships and choices. Placing blame is not the objective, but we can't learn from that which we do not acknowledge.
spouses
parents
immigrants
farmers
millers
soldiers
patriots
activists
innovators
entrepreneurs
builders
church-goers
volunteers
survivors
scholars
writers
orators
achievers
academics
abolitionists
pioneers
homesteaders
politicians.
They were also
deserters
misogynists
abusers
alcoholics
criminals
failures
disappointments.
They were human.
They were pretty great.
All
original content, images, commentary, etc. copyright © by Joy Denison
2015-2016. All rights reserved. All
writings, poems, speeches, essays, images, scans, likenesses, etc. by Adam
Ickes (b 1845) as well as personal histories, images, and all other content by
all persons referenced and discussed within the pages and posts in this blog
may not be copied, shared, or reproduced in any way without expressed
permission by the owner unless included here from other referenced sources or are historical records already considered to be in the public domain.
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