WELL, YEA AND NAY

     We live in a world that flashes by in nanoseconds. The news feeds are always changing and one crisis overtakes another and meanwhile, people feel a need to connect, to have some anchor in this overwhelming world. So they do as was done throughout history - look for the human connection, the family members they might find.
     Today that need can be fulfilled through searches. People troll through Facebook to find people, through YouTube to find videos that touch them, and yes, they search through genealogical sites. Why? Because it is there, available and actually fun to do, at least in the beginning stages. It is exciting to open the site and find the pages of first and second and third cousins you never knew or had lost track of. It is exciting to send out messages and actually get some answers.
     Why do people get so excited and for what? Hard to explain but here is an example. My two older grandsons, bright and intelligent young men, called me excitedly to shout that they were my grandsons!! Well, since I had held them five minutes after they were born I kinda' knew that, but I shared in their excitement and laughter as what we knew was confirmed for the world to see. Silly? Yea, but nay as well. The human connection is of vast importance.
     Next steps take place. I undertook a search for my namesake, a victim of Hitler and his hate filled hordes. The search was hard for I had little information. Yet there were volunteers who helped steer me through the shoals and reefs of the ancient records of European countries that are now different from then, illegible records in illegible handwritings, filled with esoteric numbers and letters, so when I was successful, yea, the joy and excitement was overwhelming and I actually cried.
     But now, as with most people, we did not stop with that discovery, for the urge to dig more, find more, go back in time far longer is overwhelming. Why? Do we expect to find some picture of a tenth generation or great, as it is called and find an amazing resemblance? Do we expect miracles? I was told that a few thousand years ago, Richard III and I shared a maternal ancestor. Do I expect to call up Elizabeth and claim kinship? Nay indeed! But it is exciting and fun. Thousands upon thousands of people are doing their research, delving into the truth of family stories of ancestors and find that there are bits of truth and bits of exaggeration, but who cares, really, for the search is both productive and informative in many ways.
     People search long and deep. Some will claim to tell you that through records and gravestones and whatever, they can prove their descent from the House of David, or some famous historical or religious figure. Perhaps they can, but we must remember that these are many generations ago, many, many decades and even some centuries ago, but we listen and we smile and we hug. So tell me, what is Trump's problem when Elizabeth Warren checked out her DNA and roots with an expert and found that there indeed had been a Native American ancestor somewhere down the line. The ability to tell exactly when as the time in the past increases, but so what? There was the family legend confirmed to a degree. And there was that cheap bastard trying to get out of paying his debt in the bet he crowed about. There went the hate filled memes on the Internet and why? Why? Because she had no picture, no name, no actual dates, no time and place of living? This is the way it is with long ago ancestors and I am excited for her at what she has confirmed.
     But the hatred of the masses keep on coming, led by the man who needs to abuse women, to shout out physical insults. Horseface, he calls one and he never stops. Where he has stopped is at some early point in his emotional and intelligence areas for he is just a hater, a selfish bastard who hates all and only loves the man in the mirror.  His selfishness even comes through in casual every day actions. How about the one where it is pouring as he and Melania walk to the helicopter and he, so lovingly, leaves her out in the rain, walks off from her, and then when back together, remains under it and she remains out, in the rain.
    So as we despair more and more in today's world, we delve deeper into the world of the past and yea, it gives great joy and leads to many good reunions or discoveries. I know, for I have found family where we thought there were none left. But it also blinds us to the importance of paying attention to the evils of today, of the blatant lies, of the avoidance of the truth, of our own version of the Emperor and his naked body, his naked hate, his naked stupidity, his naked ambitions, and his so obvious path towards the destruction of the world, literally and figuratively. Cut the taxes for the rich and then blame the enormous growing deficit on the Democrats. Lie and lie again about it. Threaten to cut off aid if more immigrants come to the border. Wish they had stopped that immigrant from Germany, his grandfather!!
    So yea, ancestor research is great. It is fun. It is sad, enlightening and heartwarming, but nay, if we use it to escape from the world in all its needs. Nay, for if we do not wake up rather quickly, immediately, there will be no future genealogical research for the Earth will be no more. Do not believe me? - go check with the scientists who have told us we are quickly reaching the point of no return. Go ask the victims of these ever growing intense disasters of Nature. Go and open the eyes, the heart and the soul and seek answers for today, so we will continue to have yesterday and tomorrow.
   VOTE     VOTE    VOTE   YEA!!!!!