Let's Record our Life Story!

The following item was posted on November 30, 2009:

I am sitting on an airplane en route from Salt Lake to Dallas and figured this would be a good time to write an entry. First of all, the statement that last Wednesday was the “busiest travel day of the year” was not exactly true for me. When I arrived at the Dallas airport, it took me about 2 minutes to get through secur...ity, the airport was empty, and my flight had empty seats in coach and first class. First class is usually full because everybody wants an upgrade.

On to the subject at hand. As was discussed in my last post, I’ve been thinking about relationships and family over the last while, specifically our progenitors. About two months ago I transcribed a tape of a presentation my Grandpa (Mom’s dad) gave in High Priests Group. It was about a half hour long and it was his life history through 1983. I found out that he had a horrible illness as a child that should have killed him, that he worked in grocery stores for quite a while when he was first married, but that he was laid off as a result of complications related to the illness he had suffered as a child. I found out how he came to become an executive for the local railroad. I found out about some of his relatives and
interesting life of experiences of those relatives (I believe it was his grandpa
who was president of the St. George temple and was the brother of George Q.
Cannon).

The interesting thing is that when he told his life history, he didn’t think it he had done much and seemed to be embarrassed to be doing it. One of his opening comments was that he thought he would have a difficult time taking up the entire class with his history. Of course, I was enthralled to listen to this tape and did so a few times because I wanted to know as much about him as I possibly could.

So what does this mean about us? I’ll bet that our life history will be absolutely fascinating to and provide excellent learning experiences for our children and grandchildren long after we have passed on. It doesn’t matter if you were homeless, had a difficult life, or had a life that everybody else saw as “easy.” You and I have a legacy that we can and should pass onto the coming generations. So if anybody ever approaches you to make a tape about your life, or to write down some sort of a comprehensive autobiography, you should jump at the opportunity. Remember that you wouldn’t do this to boast about yourself or to make your life seem more important that others’. You would be doing it because future generations (especially those directly related to you) will want to read as much about you and your life as possible. It will be interesting not only because of the things you did, but also because it is a recording of culture and thoughts of the time in which you lived. And, heck, one of the neatest ways we can do this today is through the use of Facebook!

That’s all for today. Hope you enjoyed my soapbox discussion. Live long, prosper, and record your life! (I am probably one of the biggest hypocrites to be writing this, by the way).