CBS Sunday Morning had a segment on amnesia on May 3 and it has stuck with me for over a week. A woman found herself in an unknown city without memory of who she was or how she got there. She had lost all memory for her life before. Asked what went through her mind, her answer was, “Fear. A lot of fear.” This is an extreme situation. But it made me think that history is transgenerational memory. We know where we came from and how we got to where we are. When we know this, we aren’t so vulnerable to fear. We are braver, more confident, more assured. We have a frame of reference and a metaphorical gyroscope to keep us righted. Even more than political and social history, family history has the power to act as a gyroscope in our personal lives.
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