Mankind’s history is full of uncountable events, both good and bad. Throughout our existence, there have always been villains and heroes. Their choices and actions affect us still, today, in many different ways. Whether or not we realize it, our choices today affect others later, just as the choices of the past have affected us today.
Even within our own families, there are often stories of bad, but even better, of extraordinary good. In the end, world events or smaller family events happen and affect the future because of choices. Your family’s history can be a beautiful one, you could agree with the decisions your ancestors have made or perhaps you don’t. If you’re lucky and you’ve researched, hopefully, you have found some beautiful parts of your family history.
Remembering
Perhaps grandfather’s words have never faded from your mind, and you treasure them as wise counsel. Maybe you have an ancestor that fought for their family’s freedom. Maybe your ancestor was widowed and raised many children alone with hard work and optimism.
Sometimes, just the simple knowledge of where our ancestors are from can make a difference. Let’s take the recent actions of Stefan Soloviev, for example. He donated $1 million to help Ukrainians affected by the Russian invasion. He remembered his family’s European, Russian, and Swedish roots, and also mentioned publicly: ”one of my grandmothers was Ukrainian.” He realized what Ukrainians had already been through and what his grandmother likely experienced, and decided to honor her memory in a big way.
Learning From the Past
As human beings, we have a great responsibility to learn from the past and our ancestors. This can help us to avoid certain situations or to overcome others. Unfortunately, the world, in general, doesn’t learn well from the past.
After so many wars throughout our history, they continue to happen and people still cause suffering and destruction.
However, luckily there are people learning from the past and reaching out in a sympathetic way, like Stefan Soloviev. We can do the same, with or without $1 million to donate!
Saving the Future Today
The time to save the future is now. How do we reach that goal? By watching, learning, and helping. Observing the past and the present, learning from old experiences but also learning about the current problems around us and then doing our part to help our neighbor.
It could be mowing a lawn, cleaning a home, spending time, donating clothes or money or food. It can be in small ways, but even a small drop can create a ripple.