MAE JULIAN
HISTORY OF OUR LIVES
Last year, my mother was casually speaking of something and made reference to a journal she had kept up until the time of the moon landing. I was surprised, and of course curious. I asked her if I could read it and she said…sure. I told her I would make copies and give them to my six siblings for Christmas. So, with her journal in hand, I began to read entries that were made from her wedding day forward. The journal was a slim hardbound account of the things she jotted down from time to time. Of all the surprises she might have sprung on me, the keeping of a journal had to be right up there on top. It was an opportunity to look back in time, and into her life, and her private thoughts.
My husband and I went to a meeting with a lawyer the other day. It is something we have put off for awhile. We have a basic will that has been in the lockbox for about thirty years. So, with my constant prodding, he finally agreed. Whilst in the meeting he said that part of what he wanted to encourage (and in fact has an outline for) is a history of our lives. He said that most people know very little of those who went before them. Those that do have only a rudimentary idea of what their forebearers were like, what their thoughts were, and what was and was not important to them.
When we left the lawyer’s office, my husband and I talked about this. He didn’t think he had much to say, so I offered to do it for him. Or course this would mean he would have to let go of whatever lies hidden behind the façade of controlled emotion that has been there forever. I have kept a journal off and on, but quit writing in it a long time ago. However, what these columns have done for me is to allow me to express myself in such a way that in time, generations yet to come, can read what was on my mind. That is, if they have a mind to. It seems likely that in a hundred years or so, it might be of interest.
So, I decided to pass these ideas along to you. What would it mean to you to be able to read a journal written by your ancestors? We have a journal in our family from 1850 when my great great grandfather went west on the gold rush. Although it is primarily factual, such as how many miles were traveled, and the encounter of Indians, it is of great interest to my siblings and me. We each have a copy. One thing that I have thought of many times is his account of how his best friend died. If one got diarrhea, it was common for him to die within three or four days. He spoke of burying his friend along the trail (the Oregon Trail) and that there seemed nothing more to do but move on. His group later came to an area where there was a lone tree. He says he went to it and chopped it down just to watch it fall. I pictured the emotion that went into each whack of his axe. It made me think of one of my brothers who had so much rage at an injustice done to him by a teacher that my mother told him to take an axe and tear down the garage. He lit at it with a frenzy. That old garage served the same purpose that the tree did a century ago.
I wanted to tell you these things, to encourage you to write, even if it is a few lines every so often like my mother did. It is a history of who you are and how you feel. It is a great gift to give to those who come after you. You will not be just a name in a genealogy but a person with emotions, ideas, and how you deal with problems. It is all gold. Start today. Just go to the drugstore and buy a journal and begin. As the days go by, you will find yourself making entries and documenting feelings and events. It will be a greater inheritance than the money and jewels you leave behind.
Many blessings to my Waynedale friends,
Mae
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