I have searched everywhere for a photograph of my great grandfather, John William Seth Smith. He served in the Union Army during the Civil War so I expected to find at least one picture of him somewhere. I have seen images of his wife and many of his children, but nobody appears to have a single picture of him and I can’t really say why. Perhaps he was simply one of those souls who avoided cameras or maybe nobody ever bothered to take his picture. Not a soul in the family ancestry group seems to know why there is nothing to show how he looked.
It’s interesting to me how much photography has impacted the world today. Even the most ordinary among us snaps photos with our phones to record our milestones and celebrations. We take pictures of our families, our friends, our pets, the places we have been. There is so much visual representation of the world around us documenting our time on this earth. That fact makes me wonder about the vast majority of the people who once inhabited this earth who will forever remain faceless to us. In fact, most of their stories will never be known. We can only intuit what life may have been like for them based on general knowledge of historical periods.
I remember taking an educational psychology class in preparation for becoming a teacher. The professor pointed out that never in all of time had humans been as focused on children as we have been since the twentieth century. For much of history the odds of a child surviving to adulthood were quite small. Women may have had countless babies but few of them lived past their childhoods. Some died within days or weeks of being born. Because of that reality people understood just how frail their grasp on living actually was. Their daily struggles just to stay alive bore down on them. They no doubt never imagined the plenty that most of us now enjoy.
Our times are luxurious compared to what our many ancestors experienced. At least here in the United States we have access to medical care unimagined in the past. Women are more likely to have proper pre-natal care They have the ability to plan their families. Once babies are born they generally make regular visits to pediatricians to insure that they are meeting their milestones properly. Clean water is taken for granted. Educational opportunities are free. Ours is a world that did not even exist for kings or lords in times past. Certainly nobody back then even imagined many of our modern conveniences that we now demand as our right.
I find out how my family and friends are doing from day to day with my phone that has more computing power than the room full of machines used to monitor the journey to the moon. I can talk with a friend in India and call for help if I have a flat tire. I am able to instantly memorialize any occasion with a few commands from my fingers. I see people traveling to the ends of the earth within minutes of their posts. Artificial intelligence even creates images of how famous historical figures might appear in today’s modern world.
I’ve been sitting with my daughter’s dogs while she is on a trip. She sends reminders to me and checks to see how we are all doing. I entertain myself with my laptop and games on my phone while the puppies sleep peacefully around me. It’s all rather amazing when we stop to think about it, but all too often we simply take such things for granted.
I hear a great deal of grumbling about how hard the times are and I hark back to stories I have heard about my great grandfather. I have official paperwork from his wife, my great grandmother, describing how his health was affected from serving in a terrible war. He along with so many others endured terrible conditions that affected them for the remainder of their lives. Even after the war life was difficult for my great grandfather. He had many children to feed with few resources to help. There was no doubt little time for frivolities like sitting for photographs. Life was serious business.
I think that instead of complaining about what we seem to think that we don’t have we would all do well to take note of our many many blessings. Lately whenever I get grumpy or feel sorry for myself I remember that I am not in a war torn country. Neither do I live in poverty or want. My address is not in the middle of a medical desert. I can find a doctor within minutes not far from my home. The stores around me are filled with delights and people buying them. I know that not everyone in the world has such good fortune. In fact there is great suffering that we all too often do not wish to see or discuss.
I wish that we were all more amenable to sharing our wealth without deriding such an idea by insinuating that all instances of collective cooperation are some terrible form of communism. There is such a thing as conflating virtue with taking care of our fellow humans. There no doubt is more that many of us might do to spread comfort and joy to those in need and it should not only happen at Christmas time. Our pictures of celebration should also include many random acts of kindness that become as much a part of our natures as posting photos of our adventures. A little bit of generosity multiplied billions of times over can make a huge difference.
My goal is to become more like a friend who has dedicated much of her life to traveling to Africa whenever possible to help build schools and hospitals. She uses her teaching talents to educate people and show them how to transform their lives. She has adopted entire families, sending them gifts of understanding and sharing of her largess. I think of how much better the entire world would be if we all attempted to be more like her, one kind act at a time, each and every single day. Think of the many faceless people we would begin to see. We have the power and the means to change the face of the earth.
All It Takes Is A Little Love 