Thursday, March 19, 2009
Why I Blog (and Scrapbook)
I think that people have different "types" that make up their identity. Like, some people are inherently teachers. Some are inherently artists or musicians or athletes. I am inherently a historian (and a student, and a secretary, in case you are wondering. Very fascinating stuff, I know.)
I believe that we are supposed to write down what happened (i.e. history). This is not morally neutral to me. When I was in college, I took a class in African American History my Junior year, and our major paper had to be on some aspect of the Nashville Civil Rights movement. At the public library (which had a civil rights wing), an introductory pamphlet mentioned the movie theater stand-ins, which sounded like an interesting topic to me. However, when I started researching it, I could find nothing on the stand-ins. Normally, in college, if I couldn't find anything on a topic, I'd move on to an easier topic. However, the fact that there was nothing written on the stand-ins made me panicky. Here was something that happened. It was important. And no one had written a thing about it.
So. I pulled up the microfilm for every issue of The Tennessean (Nashville's newspaper) that came out during the months I'd heard the stand-ins occurred. I spent hours and hours in the downtown public library literally getting motion sick as the microfilm reel slowly rolled by, and printing out any stories that covered the stand-ins (I realize I'm revealing myself to be the major nerd that I am, but I'm going somewhere with this). I then started making some phone calls. I called a reporter who worked for the Tennessean in the late 60's who had talked at our school about something unrelated. The reporter told me that John Seigenthaler was working in Nashville. From reading the book, The Children, I knew that Seigenthaler was Robert Kenney's personal assistant whom Kennedy sent to check out the civil rights movement when JFK was president. It was Seigenthaler's subsequent beating with a lead pipe while witnessing the Freedom Riders in action in Alabama that got the Kennedy's personally interested in civil rights. So I called him and interviewed him. (He has that lead pipe hanging on the wall in his office.) I also tracked down a white preacher, William Campbell, who was a player in the Nashville movement. I interviewed him in his log cabin in the boonies. I turned in the paper, got my grade, and then my professor urged me to take it further. So my dad got me an interview with Congressman John Lewis, who was central to the Nashville civil rights movement. I remember Lewis called me while I was driving home one day, and I conducted the "interview" on the side of the road using whatever paper I could find in my car. The congressman also put me in touch with Bernard Lafayette, another major figure who was now a professor at a northeast university, and I interviewed him, too.
I know you care. The point is, I had to write down this history. Had to. The thought of those people dying without it being covered was simply frightening to me. It wasn't about a grade; it was about it being the right thing to do. Because I am a historian:). And the stand-ins happened.
My kids' childhood also happens every day. And on a personal level, every one of those days is a stand-alone blessing from God. A gift. I was thinking about some childhood memories of my brother, and I realized that, despite his tragic later years, those childhood memories remain intact. They are happy. Period. And in times of sorrow, remembering the blessings is so important. I've given this some thought. And I've realized that my family's future may well be marked with tragedy, sorrow, and heartache. (I hope not, but it's possible.) But even if it is, nothing can take away these days of happiness. Nothing, except, us forgetting about them. And I know how I forget when I don't record things. And I think it would be such a hardship to go through a dark time and have no tangible memory of the times of light.
My blogs are about history, plain and simple. They may seem insulated and all about our little family, but that is my historical project, my area of expertise:). God repeatedly told the Israelites to remember the great things that He had done. And I want to remember the things He has done in my life. Because they happened. And so I have to write them down.
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