Looking Back To Me

How does history express who you are best?

“Those who do not look upon themselves as a link, connecting the past with the future, do not perform their duty to the world” (Daniel Webster)

I’ve been reading the latest novel, “How To Know A Person” by New York Times journalist David Brooks in the last few weeks since I attended his presentation at the 2023 Miami Book Fair.In so doing, I’ve taken a particular interest in the chapter “How Do Your Ancestors Show Up in your life?” His main point here argues that “our lives are a summation of the other lives that preceded us.” By logical extension then, I’ve received gifts of life from my cultural inheritors in the past so that I will become an inspiration for those in line who follow me. So I offer below some brief conclusions from history’s call about who I actually am as a person.

I am an Able Unifier

On my father’s inherited ancestry, I think of those rolling hills environs in Wales whereby sheep herders accompanied by their trustworthy dogs traditionally manage to move their flocks to woolen sheering mills in the countryside. In doing so, these oftentimes skittish behaving lambs would be trained to obediently follow each other as one group to their intended destination.

I too found my inherited ability to spread unity of action beneficial by teaching my students to cooperate each semester in small groups to complete major class assignments. More recently, I noticed similar satisfaction in spreading this aura of the concept of oneness through my practice of yoga and meditation.

I am a Knight Warrior

The small country of my Welsh family line also experienced its fair share of violent unrest throughout its history as over seven hundred battlefields and four hundred and twenty castles can now be identified across the land. Such frequent skirmishes happened during the classical Roman conquest period, through feudal medieval days of Viking, Norman, and Celtic invasion and more recently a result of Welsh efforts to politically secede from British control.

So in recollection of a battlefront spirit in my Welsh family history, I notice my strength of being well prepared as ever to defend against modern enemies who threaten my family, home, privacy rights, and personal possessions. Thus, my bold use of security technology exists here as one way I defeat spamming, phishing, password theft, and social media hate communications.

I am a Hopeful Innovator

I’ve always been bewildered about the human atrocities that have happened over several centuries to the country of Hungary on my mother’s ancestral side. I discovered for instance that at the conclusion of World War I, Hungarians lost more than two thirds of their country’s farmland. While in the aftermath of World War II to 1989, peasant farmers forcibly gave up ownership of their private lands and associated crop earnings to a Russian Communist state. Yet in spite of such Totalitarian aggression against the country people of Hungary, I also noticed that their daily life retained a spirit of hopefulness in their culture through creative expressions of Hungarian music, art, dance, folklore, and culinary pleasure.

In times of life stress, I similarly turn to the Hungarian spirit of creative indulgence to feel better about myself as I might play chess, plan a new travel itinerary or compose an original poem.

I am a Restless Wanderer

My grandparents on my mother’s side emigrated to the Cleveland, Ohio region with their family in the1920s during a time when thousands of Hungarians sought a better life of new economic opportunities in America to escape post war political upheaval. Although many of these immigrants were educated, offered skills and came from the middle class, they often dealt with rejection of their “Old World” cultural ways in moving around to places where available jobs were at. In the case of my grandfather, he arduously took jobs to selling household goods door by door to support his family then in this Northeast Ohio region.

In accordance with the primary focus of my Word Press blog to express views about the present moment of travel for the last five years, I too possess a Hungarian based spirit of being the restless wanderer. No doubt, I’m somewhat better off financially than my grandparents and am deeply thankful that I’m free to choose without fear where and when I wish to go.

I am a Rugged Individualist

I grew up as a child in the industrial hub of Akron. Ohio, Home to three powerful rubber factories of Firestone, Goodyear, and Goodrich throughout the twentieth century, this product acquired a particular importance for military tire production during the second World War. Yet in spite of the high demand for these jobs, the main culture of these factories dictated “blood, sweat, and tears” effort daily as each worker breathed rubber dust particles of toxic air conditions. Because tire workers also received little pay and benefits received their dangerous efforts, they were forced to strike in pursuit of desperate unionized efforts. In doing so, they risked losing their jobs.

I’ve faced racism “head on”as an inner city school teacher. I’ve hand washed acid soaked bottles and jugs on an assembly line at a local soft drink bottling company. I’ve loaded by forklift heavy grocery pallets on awaiting semi trucks at food delivery warehouses. I’ve managed the role of District Newspaper Manager for home delivery at odd, late night hours to pay for my tuition in college. This job history thus demonstrates a cultural influence in Ohio of pursuing hard work my way in tough conditions.