THE CHOSEN

In each family there is one who seems called

to find the ancestors.

To put flesh on their bones and make them live again,

to tell the family story, and to feel that somehow

they know and approve.

Doing genealogy is not a cold gathering of facts,

but, instead,

breathing life into all who have gone before.

We are the story tellers of the tribe.

All tribes have one.

We have been called, as it were, by our genes.

We are the chosen.

Those who have gone before cry out to us, Tell our story!

So we do.

In finding them, we somehow find ourselves.

How many graves have I stood before now, and cried?

I have lost count.

How many times have I told the ancestors,

"You have a wonderful family; you would be proud of us."

How many times have I walked up to a grave,

and felt somehow there was love there for me?

I cannot say.

It goes beyond just documenting facts.

It goes to who am I, and why I do the things I do.

It goes to seeing a cemetery about to be lost forever to weeds and indifference,

and saying "I can't let this happen."

The bones here are the bones of my bone, and flesh of my flesh.

It goes to doing something about it.

It goes to pride in what our ancestors were able to accomplish.

How they contributed to what we are today.

It goes to respecting their hardships and losses,

their never giving in or giving up,

their resoluteness to go on, and build a life for their family.

It goes to deep pride that the fathers fought, and some died

to make and keep us, a nation.

It goes to a deep and immense understanding

that they were doing it for us.

It is of equal pride and love that our mothers

struggled to give us birth,

without them we would not exist,

and so we love each one, as far back as we can reach.

That we might be born who we are.

That we might remember them.

So we do.

With love and caring, we scribe each fact of their existence,

because we are they,

and they are the sum of who we are.

And so, as a scribe called,

I tell the story of my family.

It is up to that one called in the next generation

to answer the call,

and take my place in the long line of family storytellers.

This is why I do my family genealogy,

and this is what calls young and old to step up

and restore the memory,

or greet those whom we have never known before.

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