History Revealed

 

                                   History Revealed

While sorting through mountains of memories in my parents’ attic, my siblings and I found many keepsakes and photos which evoked memories, laughter, and tears. We also found records concerning my grandmother’s final illness and death. I was fifteen when she left us and I remembered being told that she had died of lung cancer. The records read otherwise. They revealed a different health history that could directly affect our future. 

Many today decry what they consider “the rewriting” of history. Many consider history static, that is, as once reported now “set in stone.” They argue that historical events and figures should be regarded as admirable or contemptible based on judgments from former days, disregarding new information, revealing information, that might alter the understanding generally accepted in former days. When judged from today’s perspective historical events become more nuanced. “Heroes” and “villains” can be viewed as both people of their times and by current standards. What was acceptable in 1692 (think Salem Witch Trials) was unacceptable by 1792, shameful by 1892, condemned by 1992, and unthinkable in 2092 (let us hope).  

The ancient Greeks believed that a group of gods controlled the movements of the sun, moon, and tides. About 1,000 years ago, people believed that health was related to the state of your soul. About 300 years ago, people believed that witches cast spells that caused livestock to sicken and die and that dunking a witch in a pond would reveal her guilt.  About two hundred years ago, people believed that miasmas (bad air) caused plagues and that ingesting mercury would cure diseases. Bleeding with leeches was also popular. Past nations and cultures have condoned or condemned human sacrifice, child labor, polygamy, slavery, lynching, genocide, eugenics, ethnic cleansing, manifest destiny, pogroms, and denying one group or another the right to vote, to hold a job, to representation in court, to live in adequate housing, to access healthy foods, to attend good schools, or to get affordable health care. 

As human understanding of science and health progresses, old beliefs and practices fall away. As paleontologists unearthed fossils, earth history was revised. Scientists with microscopes discovered that illness is caused by germs not miasmas. Doctors no longer prescribe “bleeding” or ingesting poison as remedies. Slave labor is outlawed. Actions once accepted as solutions are re-identified as problems. Historic events and historical people are viewed through the lens of research and modern thought and reevaluated — sometimes more admirable, sometimes less so.   

Over 2,500 years ago, the Greek philosopher Heraclitus wrote, “Change is the only constant in life.” As life continues, change is constant. History is not rewritten; it is revealed. As we learn more about our past, our understanding and judgments will also change. When history is revealed, we need to pay heed. 

My family’s health history was revealed by once-forgotten records. We have better information for making future decisions. History revealed does not rewrite the past. History revealed rewrites the future. Pay heed.

 

Nicky The Lionheart

 

Nicky the Lionheart

A while ago, a little sweetie arrived at my second-grade classroom door. Well, I can’t really say that he arrived, he more or less was dragged kicking and screaming. The guidance counselor introduced us as she peeled him off his mother’s leg. We guided him gently to a desk and a new friend helped him hang up his jacket and told him where to put his lunch. He sniffled all day. After that beginning, I wondered how he would adjust.

I needn’t have worried. The next morning, he bounced into the room with a big grin. What had changed? 

     “Well, you seem happy today,” I remarked.

     “Yes,” he said, “I had a talk with my mommy last night. I was scared to come to my new school yesterday. My mommy told me that I didn’t need to be scared because she would be with me, right in my heart.” He drifted into the morning classroom chaos happily. 

     “What a wise mom,” I thought thankfully.  

Now this sweetheart was a little boy, and I mean little. He was significantly smaller than his classmates, about the size of a kindergarten kid. But he had a big spirit and wasn’t afraid of a challenge. The heart he shared with his mother filled our classroom with joy.

Isn’t it funny how one spirit can change a place? One Gloomy Gus brings down an entire party. One Harpy Hannah destroys everyone’s confidence. One Happy Camper causes everyone to smile. And even more amazing, a spirit of cheer, despair, or hope can be caught – or taught. This little guy’s mother had taught him not to fear. She modeled fearlessness too. She had also moved to a new place and a new job, and she needed to face the unknown with a smile and confidence.

Now as I mentioned, this student was much smaller than his peers. He was sometimes teased about his short stature or called a “Kindergarten Kid” by the other students.  I worried about him until one day during a reading assessment.

In these reading assessments, students were asked to “cold read” a text. That is they don’t see it beforehand but must read it aloud so that the teacher can assess their fluency. After the reading, the students answer questions as a comprehension check. Today, our text was “The Lion and the Mouse” a fable by Aesop.  

In the fable, a lion catches a mouse. The mouse begs to be set free promising to help the lion out someday. The lion thinks this ludicrous and laughs. How could a mouse help a great lion? But he lets him go and forgets him. Until the day the lion falls into a net and is trapped. The mouse gnaws the rope and the lion is freed.

Our little guy was reading this text.  He got to the part where the mouse frees the lion. He stopped before he read the last line of the fable. He looked me right in the eye and read out confidently, “I may be little but I can do great things!” 

I never worried about him again. In fact, in my heart, I changed his name that day. Forever for me, he will be “Nicky the Lionheart,” the little guy with his mother in his heart who taught me what a great spirit can do. 

Knowing Your Roots

 

Knowing Your Roots

Investigating our genealogical roots has become popular in the past decade. Ancestry websites make following a family tree back centuries easy. Tracing your biological history is as simple as spitting into a tube and putting your DNA in the mail. Researching family history is easy. Understanding it can be hard.

 

The PBS series, Finding Your Roots, hosted by Henry Louis Gates, Jr, explores the family history of celebrities. Most are amazed by the hard work and harrowing times their ancestors endured. Some find heroes; many find relatives on the wrong side of history.

In a recent program, one celebrity explored his Latin heritage. Growing up in California, he had known his grandfather as a hard-working man who had come to the US during WWII as a farmworker when laborers were needed. The difficult work of migrant workers amazed this celebrity but he was even more surprised to discover that his grandfather had been deported in Operation Wetback, an official US program. Local men were afraid that migrant workers were taking jobs from them. Herded into holding pens, more than a million laborers were deported. Amazingly, his grandfather managed to return to the US, to become a citizen, to raise a family, and to pass on his principle of hard work.

Going further back in history, this celebrity learned that one of his several great grandfathers had come to America with the Spanish conquistadors in 1546. In a purge called “Pacification,” Spanish soldiers waged a genocidal war against indigenous peoples, capturing, killing, or enslaving them. In a short number of years, half of the six million natives in the central Mexican countryside had been killed. To his horror, he also learned that his ancestor had owned 20-50 enslaved people either of native or African origins. 

Every episode of Finding Your Roots uncovers surprising and fascinating information. Dr. Gates chaperones celebrities through difficult facts. Often, a celebrity feels guilt about what a distant ancestor has done. Gates tells them that, while “guilt is not inheritable,” it is good to know the deeds and misdeeds of your ancestors. Finding your roots leads to knowing your roots. Knowing your roots leads to a greater understanding of how history reflects on the world today. 

Like the celebrities on Finding Your Roots, we should be curious about our history. Knowing our personal history and the history of our nation opens our eyes and widens our perspective. History exposes what good came before and what evil we want to avoid. Lessons from the past provide insights into the future. Covering up the past does not erase it. Uncovering it and learning from it leads to a better future. Knowing our roots helps us understand where we have come from and where we want to go.