"Why waste your money looking up your family tree? Just
go into politics and your opponents will do it for you” – Mark Twain
The smile:
In first grade we had family week. It began with the
students going home and asking about family history. When I got home I asked my mother, “Where did
we come from?” She smiled and said “Honey, we are from right here in West
Tennessee.” I happily went back to class
and told my teacher. My teacher told me I had misunderstood the question. She
instructed me to ask where my family originated.
I went home the second afternoon and asked my mother’s
brother, who I believed was the smartest man I knew. I asked “Where did we come
from…in the beginning?” He smiled and sat me down at the table. He explained, “We
evolved from creatures of the sea to primates and evidently to humans.” I asked
“What is a primate?” He replied it is the same group of animals that monkeys
are apart.
Just as my uncle was finishing this lecture, my father
walked into the room. He was hot and dirty from a long day of working outside.
I jumped to my feet excited about my new knowledge and exclaimed “Daddy, Uncle
Larry just told me we came from monkeys.” My father rubbed the stubble on his
chin for a second and replied “That’s just your mother’s side of the family”
The ponder:
Alex Shoumatoff in “The
Mountain of Names” everyone is related to everyone else within 50 generations.
That is about 1,000 years ago. Of course I believe in Adam and Eve though that
was a while before the 1,000 year mark.
What was life like about
that time? According to Wikipedia:
1)
Europe was
in the Middle Ages. (I wonder if King Arthur was pulling swords from stones)
2)
The Muslim
Empire was in the Golden Age
3)
Leif
Erikson was the first European to set foot in the Americas. (Take that,
Columbus)
4)
China
issued the first paper money in the world as well as invented gun powder.
5)
India has the world’s biggest economy with a possible estimate of 1/3
of the world’s wealth.
6)
Specifically
the year 1015 began on a Saturday.
The physical challenge:
Today I did 100 Olympic style sit-ups, 100 push-ups, 100
squats and 25 front kicks each leg.
If you worked out today, let me know how you did.
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