Ancestors = Strangers

Baby J will meet her great-grandmother in a few months. Like many people, I never really knew any of my great-grandmothers. Once, when I was around the same age as Baby J, I had a photo-op with my mother's mother's mother, but I don't remember anything from the encounter. There's a picture of the two of us together somewhere.

It seems so strange to me that our ancestors are basically complete strangers to us. I don't know a thing about my great-great-grandfather. No one really knows that much about their ancestors. They're complete strangers to us. But if your great-great-grandfather had made a few decisions differently, gone left instead of right, you wouldn't be here. Neither would you mom or dad. Or you grandparents for that matter.

Odd isn't it that our lives depend so much on a fleet of strangers stretching back into the shadows of the past?

So I guess it's okay that Baby J won't really know her great-grandmother too well or even have a clue who she is when they meet. That's just the way life works. And someday, if things work out the way they should, I won't know the strangers that'll be my great-great-grandkids. I'm okay with knowing that.

As long as those dang whippersnappers stay off my lawn!