I did some research for a family reunion presentation that I did recently. I had done some work on figuring out who my ancestors were a while back ago, but this was a concentrated effort. I went 14 generations back from me to father to grandfather to great grandfather, etc.. Was able to trace direct descendants by first and last name to a person who lives in England in the 1300s. Along the way I found a variety of documents that proved these people actually existed. Ship manifests, birth certificate, draft registrations, census records, marriage certificates, baptisms, deaths, and property purchases. Along the way I learned that the people in my family were impacted by disease, war, famine, crop failure, shipwreck, religious persecution, depression, prohibition, recession and just good old fashioned bad luck.
I come from a long line of generational poverty. Most of us do I imagine. Most of us came from immigrants. Separated by only a few generations most likely. The family on my father’s side came to the U.S. a long time before the American Revolution. There is one thing that rings true across all 14 of those generations. There is a long line of established mindset. You work hard for your living, you do right by your fellow man (and woman), you try to buy a house, you pay taxes (as a little as possible) and then you die. Sometimes prematurely. In one case by asphyxiation in an abandoned coal mine trying to still moonshine to make extra cash on the side. I think I might have liked that member of my family!
Anyway, getting to the point. I have a generational mindset. Some of it is good. I have a strong work ethic. I have strong sense of purpose. I have a core belief in defending the rights of others, to live true to my ideals. I strive to be honest unless dealing with certain branches of the government, and I will fight for a cause bigger then myself when called upon. I value good old fashioned hard work and I am definitely not afraid to roll up my sleeves and figure something out. I can fix a tractor in a pinch, plow a field, do some small amount of welding and I can appreciate the beauty of the world around me. Most of this is learned, and it is generational. You certainly cannot kill me easily, as my family has been through the worst of it, and have already figured out how to persevere in circumstances much worse then anything modern times can come up with.
However, this same mindset produces some serious negatives. I do not understand the mindset of the wealthy. I do not understand the concept of building assets, managing holdings, and producing institutions that improve in value over time. I have had to learn these things over time, and I have had to learn the hard way. I also do not come from a mindset about healthy living either. The concept of a doctor in my family was probably a bottle of whiskey and strip of old leather. Your workout was the plow and hammer. You did not make money and the concept of currency was misrepresented in a stuffed coffee can above the fire place mantle. We called stock brokers gambling men, and the only institution that we grew to trust overtime was the local mercantile and the co-op where exchanged goods with other farmers. So I have some generational challenges to deal with. A few generations ago, one of my relatives was able to work hard and build something which got us out of the class of the impoverished labor class and we became middle class tradesmen. My job is to do what I can to get us to the next level. Perhaps generation 15 will add something a little more, add a dynamic which will give the 16, 17, 18th generation a chance at real wealth, tremendous accomplishment, or creating a social movement that causes something positive to happen.
So my daily commitments are causing me to think long term not only about myself, but generational implications. Do I have the power to break the mindset that has set in for hundreds of years? Do I have the will to sustain the legacy that has been built on the backs and on the ashes of the lives of so many men and women?
Guy Reams (565)
