I'll be the first to admit that I am not the best blogger around, but I do have to say that I've been way better at blogging than keeping a journal. I enjoy creating my story into something interesting to read. Making a journey to the store to buy cheese and bread entertaining for you to read takes some mad skills. Some posts are better than others, but when it comes down to it, the reason I blog is for posterity.
Patrick and I went on a little mini trip this weekend to Occidental, CA. It's in the Sanoma county down by Napa. We were driving around and found this really old cemetery.
I would say that 98% of the people that were buried there were born in the 1800's and about 90% of those died in the 1800's. These headstones were so very old. Even the wording on some of them were not like they do these days. No birth date, just a death date and how many years, months and days old they were when they died. We came across this headstone:
As you can see, these people died in 1909 and 1918. On average, that was 100 years ago. Did you see that there are flowers there? Someone still thinks of this husband and wife and cares enough to bring flowers. Perhaps it was a family member seeking out their heritage, or maybe a grandchild with fond memories of these people. We will never know, but I'd like to think it has to do with memories...someone remembering them.
All those headstones really hit home. We start as babies, grow up, get married, have babies of our own, they grow up and give us grand babies, and if we are so lucky, our grand babies grow up and give us great grand babies...then we die, then our kids die, then our grand babies die, then our great grandbabies die and WE are completely washed from memory. No one else left on earth knew us, had memories of us. Can you tell me the name of your great great great grandmother? I can't and I definitely can't tell you anything about her. THIS, my friends, is why I blog. Yah, some posts are boring at times, but I'm blogging for posterity. I want my great great great great grandchildren to find my grave and put flowers on it because they knew me and knew of my experiences in this life. I may be grasping at straws here, but I feel like I am doing my part to keep my story alive by blogging and I hope that in 200 years, someone will read this post and say, Thank you for blogging. I'm glad to know you.
Patrick and I went on a little mini trip this weekend to Occidental, CA. It's in the Sanoma county down by Napa. We were driving around and found this really old cemetery.
I would say that 98% of the people that were buried there were born in the 1800's and about 90% of those died in the 1800's. These headstones were so very old. Even the wording on some of them were not like they do these days. No birth date, just a death date and how many years, months and days old they were when they died. We came across this headstone:
As you can see, these people died in 1909 and 1918. On average, that was 100 years ago. Did you see that there are flowers there? Someone still thinks of this husband and wife and cares enough to bring flowers. Perhaps it was a family member seeking out their heritage, or maybe a grandchild with fond memories of these people. We will never know, but I'd like to think it has to do with memories...someone remembering them.
All those headstones really hit home. We start as babies, grow up, get married, have babies of our own, they grow up and give us grand babies, and if we are so lucky, our grand babies grow up and give us great grand babies...then we die, then our kids die, then our grand babies die, then our great grandbabies die and WE are completely washed from memory. No one else left on earth knew us, had memories of us. Can you tell me the name of your great great great grandmother? I can't and I definitely can't tell you anything about her. THIS, my friends, is why I blog. Yah, some posts are boring at times, but I'm blogging for posterity. I want my great great great great grandchildren to find my grave and put flowers on it because they knew me and knew of my experiences in this life. I may be grasping at straws here, but I feel like I am doing my part to keep my story alive by blogging and I hope that in 200 years, someone will read this post and say, Thank you for blogging. I'm glad to know you.
You are doing your part, and in an amazing way! Of course your talent with a camera is amazing, but you always do so well at explaining things, too.
ReplyDeleteI've had similar feelings as I've worked on indexing old genealogical records... so many people! Such short lives, really, in the grand scheme of things. Time just rolls right along. That perspective helps me to avoid getting frustrated at little annoyances and problems.