Blog archive
August 2024
1619 Wide Ranging Interests
08/19/2024
1619 Wide Ranging Interests
08/19/2024
First Anniversary
08/19/2024
Alexandra Leaving by Leonard Cohen
08/16/2024
Muse des Beaux Arts by W. H. Auden
08/16/2024
The God Abandons Antony by Constantinos P. Cavafy
08/16/2024
Ch – Ch – Ch –Changes
08/15/2024
Cultural Activities Team offers an ‘embarrassment of riches’
08/15/2024
Engaging in Pasadena Village
08/15/2024
Future Housing Options
08/15/2024
Message from the President
08/15/2024
There Are Authors Among Us
08/15/2024
Villagers Welcome New Members at the Tournament Park Picnic
08/15/2024
Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night by Dylan Thomas
08/14/2024
A narrow Fellow in the Grass by Emily Dickinson
08/13/2024
Haikus
08/13/2024
One Art by Elizabeth Bishop
08/13/2024
Poem 20 by Pablo Neruda
08/13/2024
Still I Rise by Maya Angelou
08/13/2024
Trees by Joyce Kilmer
08/13/2024
July 2024
Alma Stokes, The Struggle in Pasadena
07/25/2024
A Poetry Gathering: Liberating Experiences Available
07/19/2024
Civil Rights Movement Series
07/19/2024
Happy Hours in Pasadena: A Villager’s Perspective
07/19/2024
Pasadena Village and the National Dialogue on Villages and Healthy Aging Research
07/19/2024
President's Message
07/19/2024
The Kern River Rafting Caper
07/19/2024
The Village Artists Group creates creative camaraderie
07/19/2024
An Example of Inherent Racism
07/14/2024
Current, Upcoming Events
07/04/2024
June 2024
No Real Recourse For Discrimination
06/30/2024
A Personal Statement of Strength and Well-Being
06/25/2024
Juneteenth Reflections
06/24/2024
Reflections on 2023-2025
06/21/2024
Reactions and Reflections Re: Juneteenth
06/19/2024
As Our Organization Grows, Villagers Recall Personal Highlights
06/17/2024
From the Outgoing President
06/17/2024
Letter from the Incoming President: Beginning Our ‘Lagniappe’ Year
06/17/2024
The Editorial Team Looks Back: Creating the Voice of the Village
06/17/2024
This Year's Resource Fair was the Most Successful Ever
06/17/2024
Telling the Whole Story
06/12/2024
Nashville
06/10/2024
May 2024
Emergency Preparedness: Are You Ready?
05/28/2024
Farewell from the 2023/24 Social Work Interns
05/28/2024
Gina on the Horizon
05/28/2024
Mark Your Calendars for the Healthy Aging Research California Virtual Summit
05/28/2024
Meet Our New Development Associate
05/28/2024
Putting the Strategic Plan into Practice
05/28/2024
Washington Park: Pasadena’s Rediscovered Gem
05/28/2024
Introducing Civil Rights Discussions
05/22/2024
Rumor of Humor #2416
05/14/2024
Rumor of Humor #2417
05/14/2024
Rumor of Humor #2417
05/14/2024
Rumor of Humor #2418
05/14/2024
Springtime Visitors
05/07/2024
Freezing for a Good Cause – Credit, That Is
05/02/2024
No Discussion Meeting on May 3rd
05/02/2024
An Apparently Normal Person Author Presentation and Book-signing
05/01/2024
Flintridge Center: Pasadena Village’s Neighbor That Changes Lives
05/01/2024
Pasadena Celebrates Older Americans Month 2024
05/01/2024
The 2024 Pasadena Village Volunteer Appreciation Lunch
05/01/2024
Woman of the Year: Katy Townsend
05/01/2024
April 2024
Rumor of Humor #2410
04/28/2024
Rumor of Humor #2411
04/28/2024
Rumor of Humor #2412
04/28/2024
Rumor of Humor #2413
04/28/2024
Rumor of Humor #2414
04/28/2024
Rumor of Humor #2415
04/28/2024
Rumor of Humor #2416
04/28/2024
Stimulated by "Caste"
04/22/2024
Tulsa reparations, Religion and Politics
04/09/2024
March 2024
Trumps War with Black Women
03/31/2024
Addressing The Needs of Older Adults Through Pasadena Village
03/25/2024
Coming Soon: More Resources for Older Americans, Online and in Person
03/25/2024
Community Building Locally and Nationally
03/25/2024
Preparing for the Future with Ready or Not
03/25/2024
Volunteering is at The Heart of the Village
03/25/2024
Women's Liberation: Then and Now
03/25/2024
Writing Memoirs Together
03/25/2024
Current Views on Current Events
03/20/2024
Unchained
03/18/2024
Rumr of Humor issue # 2409
03/10/2024
Blacks Portrayed by European Artists
03/03/2024
Rumor of Humor #2408
03/03/2024
February 2024
Caring for Ourselves and Each Other
02/27/2024
Doug Colliflower Honored
02/27/2024
Great Decisions Connects Us to the Worldwide Community
02/27/2024
Letter from the President
02/27/2024
Pasadena Village's Impact
02/27/2024
The Power of Touch
02/27/2024
Villages as a New Approach to Aging
02/27/2024
Addressing Gang Violence in Pasadena-Altadena
02/21/2024
Rumor of Humor Issue 2407
02/19/2024
Thank You For Caring.
02/12/2024
Rumor of Humor 2405
02/11/2024
Curve Balls
02/10/2024
Sylvan Lane
02/10/2024
Rumor of Humor 2404
02/09/2024
Larry Duplechan, Blacks in Film
02/03/2024
January 2024
Pasadena Village Joins Community Partners in Vaccination Campaign
01/29/2024
Rumor of Humor #2403
01/28/2024
Pasadena Village Joins Two Healthy Aging Resource Projects
01/25/2024
Decluttering: Do It Now
01/24/2024
Village Volunteers Contribute to the Huntington Magic
01/24/2024
Villagers Creating Community
01/24/2024
Villagers Reflect on Black History Month
01/24/2024
Walk With Ease, 2024
01/24/2024
Wide Ranging Discussion on Current Issues
01/22/2024
Wide Ranging Discussion on Current Issues
01/22/2024
Rumor of Humor # 2402
01/21/2024
Rumor of Humor # 2401
01/15/2024
Re- Entry Programs, a Personal Experience
01/08/2024
Observations About Our Family History
By John TuitePosted: 07/28/2022
Men's Time Topic Discussion for Tuesday, August 2 at 9:30am Pacific time.
Some Observations About Our Family History
Based on an Article by Rachel Coleman
Knowing, recording, and preserving your family history directly impacts you, your family, and even future generations of people you may never know. Find out how and why family history matters.
“A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.” —Marcus Garvey
The United States celebrates October as National Family History Month and for good reason. Knowing, recording, preserving, and sharing our family histories can provide countless benefits to individuals, families, and entire societies. Family history is more than pedigree charts, censuses, and birthdates—it can be a powerful antidote against adverse life experiences that we face today, giving us a stronger understanding of who we are and motivating us to deepen our roots for generations to come.
Core Identity
Knowing our cultural background and where we came from can help us develop a strong sense of who we really are. The way we relate to our family stories and create our own narratives about ourselves helps establish our unique, authentic core identity.
Human beings desire attachment, belonging, and connection. The relationships we form with other people can be incredibly durable, not only with people in our present, but also with people in our past and future. The more we discover about our past, the greater a connection we feel to our ancestors. As we record our own history, we open the opportunity for future generations to connect with us when we are gone.
In a popular TED talk entitled, Everything You Think You Know about Addition is Wrong, British journalist Johann Hari teaches that the opposite of addiction is not sobriety, it is connection. Connecting with members of our family past and present by learning their history fills an innate need in each one of us.
Compassion
Learning the history of our ancestors helps us gain a greater understanding of the challenges they faced, and it often inspires greater love and compassion for their flaws and mistakes. This compassion can easily translate to our relationships with the living, within our families and outside them. We all face hard things. Remembering that fact in the context of others’ shortcomings allows us to be better employees, managers, spouses, parents, children, siblings, and human beings.
Resilience
Knowing our family history builds resilience. In learning about our ancestors’ lives, we can see patterns of overcoming failures and surviving hard times. Their stories remind us that surely not everything in life will work easily, that disappointments occur and inequalities exist, but that we can recover, triumph, and find happiness despite hardships.
Bruce Feiler, in an article for the New York Times, summarizes a study about the resilience of children: “The more children knew about their family’s history, the stronger their sense of control over their lives, the higher their self-esteem and the more successfully they believed their families functioned. [It] turned out to be the best single predictor of children’s emotional health and happiness.”
William Dad was an 18th-century cleric in Yorkshire, England. Although he never married and had no children of his own, he promoted the practice of including as much information as possible in parish registers. Because of his efforts, many registers of this period contain rich information for genealogists. Amy Harris, a family history professor at Brigham Young University, refers to this type of selfless effort as genealogical consciousness. The act of being aware of and having a sense of responsibility to our ancestors, progenitors, and all of future humankind is an act of altruistic selflessness.
The ability to cooperate and act selflessly is unique to humanity. Harris teaches that it is what allows us to harness the “power of millions and billions.” Learning our history, recording it, and preserving it blesses not only our related family, but the entire human family.
Self-Worth
Our family history goes beyond the names and dates we find in our tree . It’s about what makes us who we are. It’s about people with whom we can form deep connections. It’s about people who lived and breathed and suffered and triumphed. It’s about roots and branches and leaves and entire forests. It’s about all of us.