Facing the Abyss

[Loyal]

I'm a credentialed historian (look at my student loan debt for verification), because I have a compulsion to know historical context. I have mentioned elsewhere, that as a genealogist, I discovered more than 2000 extended relatives after knowing only a handful when I started 19-20 years ago. Aside from religious ideas, which I do not discount, some have said that a person lives only in the memory of those that remembered him/her.

I do have an adopted daughter and her family, who I love as much as any biological daughter. But, my biological line, ends with me. After the beginning of time for humans, my line ends when I die.

Do I matter?

The sheer numbers of humanity in history, says that I matter as much as any other expired human. No one in my family knew our great grandfather, because he died before his son was born. No one remembered him, and it felt that I resurrected him from oblivion when I connected with other long lost relatives via Ancestry.com. So in some small way, his memory lives again.

I will try to write about my family, if fate allows me to do so. Sometimes I am weary and wonder if the meaning of my life, isn't much? Still, I read history and try for that MA. It would be easy to get caught up in daily life, and die unexpectedly, and slip into the void.

I love the Rams and have always been a fan, but it's not enough. Forgive this indulgent post, please....Just thinking out loud...

 

[LesBaker]

You remind me a little of JamesJM if you know that poster.

 

[Mackeyser]

often insignificance is a matter of timing as history tells us.

For a milder example, a small, insignificant toy that finds its way underfoot in the middle of the night can become the center of the universe

 

[Loyal]

You remind me a little of JamesJM if you know that poster.

Don’t know him, and I am afraid to ask About similarities.....

 

[LesBaker]

Don’t know him, and I am afraid to ask About similarities.....

Deep thinker, great writer and inquisitive. And he shared excellent stories about his family.

In fact the post he threw up years ago about watching his family home, which was a sort of farmhouse/ranch-house, go up in flames was so richly detailed you could picture it perfectly in your mind. He should have been a writer.

Some people on here know him..........he's unusual and special..........and the most fun I ever had at a Rams game was when he and I sat next to each other on what was his only trip to STL that I can remember, though maybe he made another since there was a stretch of a few years I didn't go. It was like having Yoda next to me. Small, but wise.

 

[fearsomefour]

Matter how? Having a building named after you? All those suckers are gone too.

 

[Ramhusker]

We all are just dust in the wind.

 

[Ramhusker]

We all are just dust in the wind.

View: https://youtu.be/tH2w6Oxx0kQ

 

[Karate61]

How do you go about finding all those past relatives, if you don't mind sharing?

 

[AvengerRam]

Of course you matter. You have time (how much, nobody knows) and free will. With those two things, you have the capacity to act, or not to act, to speak, or not to speak. Each time you make such a choice, you create a ripple in this world’s pond. How far it will go and who or what it will touch, nobody knows. But, make no mistake...just as you are who you are due to many people who are long gone and who you’ve never heard of, your ripples extend far beyond your gaze. And, best of all...if you can believe what I just wrote, and convince others to live their lives with the belief that those words are true, think how much better this world will be.

 

[Loyal]

How do you go about finding all those past relatives, if you don't mind sharing?

1. Talk to your relatives and start creating your family tree. Most people know their grandparents and may luckily have some still living.
2. I use Ancestry.com to look at US Census reports. The 1940 US Census is the latest available, with the 1950 US Census coming available after 2020 (70 years minimum before each is released. So much information is available when looking at family units. Ancestry will give "hints" for other censuses and possible other documents, like the SSDI and only vital records in some states. The farther you go back in time,the more it starts to snowball. Each census has slightly different information. I love the 1900 US Census, because it asked people their actual birth month and birth year, which helps with precision of information. It's a vast genealogical treasure hunt, get in the game!

 

[Karate61]

1. Talk to your relatives and start creating your family tree. Most people know their grandparents and may luckily have some still living.
2. I use Ancestry.com to look at US Census reports. The 1940 US Census is the latest available, with the 1950 US Census coming available after 2020 (70 years minimum before each is released. So much information is available when looking at family units. Ancestry will give "hints" for other censuses and possible other documents, like the SSDI and only vital records in some states. The farther you go back in time,the more it starts to snowball. Each census has slightly different information. I love the 1900 US Census, because it asked people their actual birth month and birth year, which helps with precision of information. It's a vast genealogical treasure hunt, get in the game!

Right on...thanks man!!!

 

[bluecoconuts]

Pale blue dot my friend, pale blue dot. All the death, glory, and fame on this planet has been for control over a fraction of a dot.

In the end everything we do and say will be long gone. Even if we're lucky enough to get etched into the history books, chances are we won't escape this system before it's too late. Even if we do escape, much of our past will be forgotten, especially the parts that relate to that old long gone and forgotten planet that used to orbit around a star that will be gone or a red giant by then.

The world makes no sense, the universe even less. It's all chaos, so the best thing to do is be kind to each other and enjoy the ride while we can.

 

[Loyal]

I just ran across a great example in a small town Nebraska newspaper, printed in 1887. It wrote of one of the richest men on earth, as stated by the article, who was relocating permanently to Paris. His name was Andre Kron, worth $50 million in US dollars. Mr. Kron solved a problem in St. Petersburg, Russia which saved the city. Disease swept the city and the problem seemed unsolvable. Mr. Kron realized that drinking water (Neva river) was merging with sewage run off and informed the Russian Czar Nicholas of the problem. The Czar demanded that a fresh source of water be found for the city, and imperial experts far and wide were called in to dig wells and solve the problem. They failed and convinced the Czar that the problem had no answer. It was then that Kron formed a team and solved the problem. Kron received a $5 million dollar prize from the Czar and a letter of thanks from the Czarina. He must have had continuing royalties from the solution to arrive at the $50 million dollar fortune that was his in 1887.

If you never heard of him, you are not alone. Do a Google search, and you will only find an old document, from which this newspaper article was probably drawn. Andre Kron was a World famous hero and extremely rich, but he is lost in the dust bin of history.

 

[Ramhusker]

https://books.google.com/books?id=k...MY4ChDoAQgmMAA#v=onepage&q=Andre Kron&f=false

 

[Ramhusker]

https://books.google.com/books?id=kpXnAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA22-PA5&lpg=RA22-PA5&dq=Andre+Kron&source=bl&ots=G65l6n_h_r&sig=NbCAL9vrB-HP3LfXms9gtVCcWxA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiV8vbdiabcAhVE6VMKHTXfBMY4ChDoAQgmMAA#v=onepage&q=Andre Kron&f=false

And I have to ask what is the text in this Student's Journal? Is that Arabic, shorthand, what?

 

[Loyal]

And I have to ask what is the text in this Student's Journal? Is that Arabic, shorthand, what?

That is the one I found in the Google search that I did, as well. I am reading every word of a specific newspaper in a town that I am studying, so that I can get a sense of what residents understood of the world at the time. Aside from local news, a great part of all the newspaper’sinformation came via teletype. I get the voyeuristic sense that they viewed these strange stories like people going to see the freaks at a traveling circus...The curious “others”....

 

[RamsAndEwe]

Pale blue dot my friend, pale blue dot. All the death, glory, and fame on this planet has been for control over a fraction of a dot.

In the end everything we do and say will be long gone. Even if we're lucky enough to get etched into the history books, chances are we won't escape this system before it's too late. Even if we do escape, much of our past will be forgotten, especially the parts that relate to that old long gone and forgotten planet that used to orbit around a star that will be gone or a red giant by then.

The world makes no sense, the universe even less. It's all chaos, so the best thing to do is be kind to each other and enjoy the ride while we can.

Yes and no. On one hand, I feel your Carl Sagan pale blue coconut dot view point.

On the other hand when facing the abyss, I find the First Law of Thermal Dynamics comforting.
The law of conservation of energy states that the total energy of an isolated system is constant; energy can be transformed from one form to another, but can be neither created nor destroyed.

That means Loyal Ram's atoms existed since the beginning of the Universe! Loyal Ram's matter and energy can not be destroyed! What a wonderful thought.