In the age where digital natives are the future, what from our past will we today give to them? Perhaps there is a reason why genealogy is finding reclamation in the digital age. Will technology and tradition find a home in the digital realm of online services like ancestry.com? Will the generation gap be closed by Brit-ripped, celebrity-produced shows like, Who Do You Think You Are?
For all the attention and hype about iconic celebrities finding the real non-Hollywood story about their family past, it is likely to be another fashionable trend in popular culture, if we fail to hold on to those memories by passing them on to the next generation.
Holding on to memories is not a passive action. If generations to come are to remember the heritage of their familiar roots, then today we must plant our family tree in rich soil. We must graft ourselves to the past, not so as to stay buried in the past, but grow a broader and stronger trunk. As we rely on the foundation that our ancestors established for us, generations to come depend us if they are to make beautiful the canopy of our tree.
What fertilizes the family tree? How do we strengthen the core of that tree? While record-keeping is essential, just as tilling and pruning is for plant life; story-telling is what truly fertilizes that tree. The tradition of passing on orally from one family member to the next the fond memories and vivid stories of “yesteryear” is crucial to a healthy family tree.
Holding on to family memories involves human interaction of the older generation telling the stories of their lifetime to the younger generation. Raw family videos posted on YouTube or spontaneous snapshots shared on Facebook are no replacement for live testimonies. The social media has nothing compared to hearing “in person” the dramatic retelling by my grandmother of how she wrestled with snakes and popped their heads off as she grew up on the farm. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but my grandmother’s words were priceless. It’s one of those things that you say, “You just had to be there.”
And that’s the point of holding on to our memories. You have to be present with your family when they share their stories, so you can receive today from them what they received from their past. And then you for the future may pass on the memories you received to the next. Memories are made when people who gather together spend time sharing stories, keeping the memories alive in one another.
