I know how much I treasure little snippets of the past like letters that Dad wrote to Mom when they were dating, an aunt's diary from when she was a child, recipes that my grandma used with little hand written notes on them. I have to believe that my descendents will be interested in similar snippets of my life one day.
Becky has a great post on her blog called Seasonality about this topic. I agree with Becky and Susan Albert in believing that we all have a story to tell, and that there is someone, somewhere, sometime who will treasure those stories.
Do something special for your descendents and write your own stories. It can be as simple as a few pages about your favorite teacher or best friend, or an entire book about your life. Whatever you write, believe that your words will be treasured and that you are giving someone an opportunity to know you better. What a wonderful gift!
6 comments:
As Susan said in her little talk at our library: There is plenty of history out there, written from a man's point of view, but almost nothing from a woman's. It's time to balance the scales!
When I think if I only had a book, however small, filled with essays from either of my grandmothers' lives, their difficult journeys to nyc from Europe, what a beautiful gift that would be. Could anything be more enlightening, even to my own place in life now, than their personal histories?
what a great idea...I always loved hearing the family stories when I was a kid...maybe I should pass them down...
I've often thought about this myself. It's sad to say that I do not know much of my family history, but I have always wanted to! I did call up my grandmother recently to ask how she met my grandfather and wrote that little bit down. I had never thought about it though from the angle of one day being an ancestor myself...something definitely to think about!
I have several diaries that I simply cannot throw away because I feel that they are a window into my life for those that come after me. Of course, what bothers me is that I pour everything out in my journals and I don't want anyone to be offended!
Great thinking here! I can look at this in regards to how much I love antiques and aged things. Someday, my stuff will be antiques. Coolness.
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