Things I Have Learned - Our own piece of the story

Today’s Wisdom: We are all important parts of a much larger system, pieces of the universe’s puzzle that would not be complete without us. – Russell Eric Dobda

By Bill D. Ward

Some time ago, I spent two years working on a book project that involved digging up old stories of people and families from the pioneer days of my town. It was an extremely interesting quest as I dug through old newspapers, books, and family histories. It was almost like finding a gold nugget each time I stumbled on another great story.

Each of the 83 stories I chose for the book was uniquely different. Some represented great courage and sacrifice. Others were tragedies, with loss of life, loss of children, or calamities of great impact. Some were funny or amusing, underscoring the human condition that plagued our ancestors just as it plagues us today. Then, some were just plain odd, like the day in 1897 that our town was visited by a flying saucer that landed for a while.

One of the things I have come to appreciate from this research is that the good old days were not so great. Times were hard for many. Summers were hot, winters were cold, and the odds of getting a good crop were limited by drought, grasshoppers, frost, and one’s own and one’s children’s capacity for manual labor. There were also few handouts, other than maybe land handed down through generations of family. People who did well did so by their own hard work.

As I assembled all the stories, I contemplated the impact of this collective of my town’s pioneers. Together, they built a community that continues to thrive. What might be different today if any one of them had not chosen to come to my town? I know many people here today are descendants of some of those early pioneers. Would their church pew be empty on Sunday? Undoubtedly, 1,000 or more little details would be different.

Then I wonder about all our own little rural towns today. What would be different if each one of us had not left our own imprint on our community? Perhaps someday someone will write the story of your contribution. I am hopeful that each of you can say that your community, your family, your house, is better today because of your own presence and work within it. I’m just sayin’.