Life As We Don't Know It

   I ran across a most interesting tweet by @curiousordinary about finding our ancestors’ story:

Some say that in families the unprocessed pain of one generation is passed on to the next & by discovering your ancestors stories & acknowledging their suffering you can break the cycle & start to tell your own story. In my experience, I think it could be true.#FolkloreThursday https://t.co/DFJpjzobA0

— curious ordinary (@curiousordinary) January 17, 2019

   How moving to hear someone discovering their emotional connection to their past. We carry on the pain and suffering in ways we never knew. Yes, I’ve heard the references say “we inherit the sins of our fathers,” or that each generation continues the patterns from before. But the way this person expressed it shows to me the depth of where we are in life. It shows we matter, past and present.

   I look back on one part of my past, where my French ancestry was living in Acadia (Nova Scotia area). They lived peaceably. It was the British who came into conflict wanting to take over the land, so they fought with the French Acadians. One of the outcomes of the conflict (starting in 1755) was the “Le Grande Derangement” - the Great Deportation of the Acadians by force, as the Acadians refused to pledge allegiance to the King of England. Families were split up, many died from starvation and disease as they fled while the British burned their homes and crops. Those captured were sent to France, some surviving ones fled elsewhere, many to the south to Louisiana where French communities were already established.

   I see why I have strong feelings against authorities using force against innocent people.

   Many groups of people throughout the world have gone through this type of situation, for centuries. One would think that each generation would learn something from this, learn the cruelty of conquering, the hatred that leads to dehumanizing people. 

📷 acadian.org

   Learning one’s ancestry can be vital for change. I see this now. When we fail to face the actions of our ancestors, fail to understand the realities of their own lifetime, we fail to learn why we are living the way we are living. Perhaps some people are okay with that. They choose to continue the hatred, the prejudice, maintaining their illusion of authority over others.

   Each individual who seeks to learn, understand, and to appreciate their ancestors’ struggle can act to improve relationships and lives today. Rather than looking to just connect the dots on a tree, we can search for the heart and soul of our ancestors’ being. We can understand and forgive. We can weep and we can rejoice. We can continue to live life as we know it or live a life that helps to bring justice to those that led us to who we are today.        Theresa M.       

                                                       

follow @curiousordinary on twitter

referencewww.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca  “The Deportation of the Acadians"