Posted by Dinah on July 17, 2008, at 0:23:21
In reply to Re: Why do people persevere?, posted by Sigismund on July 17, 2008, at 0:08:24
Yes, history is quite good for curing self pity.
Specifically today we were hearing (books on tape) about the Egyptian empire and those hard workers who spent their time hauling humonguous stones along primitive pulley systems to build the pyramids for their king.
But it led me to think of my many serf ancestors. Poor ragged wretches living in pathetic huts that would be periodically set ablaze by this lord or that fighting over control of their little part of the world. Having to grab their belongings and run for the castle, then hobble out to rebuild while their masters demanded more and more to pay for all their wars. All the raping and pillaging and death. And if they survived that there was the fact that a quarter of women died in childbirth. A small percent of babies made it to adulthood. The plague, smallpox, yellow fever. Bodies everywhere.
I try to remember that they had all the normal small joys. Falling in love, getting married, baby's first step, finding a turnip the pillagers overlooked, small triumphs and failures. The comfort of the magical words of a Mass in Latin. The comfort of alcohol. Never forget that one.
I try to remember that they really didn't have anything to compare it to. That they were born to this, fully expected to die to it. That they noticed it no more than we notice what to future generations may be the discomforts and misery of our world today.
Yet I wonder what sort of fortitude and spirit it took for these people to survive. To even want to survive and procreate. And I wonder where on earth it went, because I sure don't have it. All of the me's of prior generations would have cocked up their toes long before passing on their genes. So how did I come to be?
poster:Dinah
thread:840086
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20080702/msgs/840099.html