Yesterday my 10-year-old grandson interviewed me for a school project. He had a list of questions about my ancestors, my childhood. His heritage.
Where did your ancestors come from? Were there any naming traditions? Where did you grow up?
I responded and he took notes on his iPad. So serious and so grown up, my Louis.
“What do you remember most about your childhood?”
I took a deep breath.
I still have the Bible I owned when I was Louis’ age. It’s full of underlined, highlighted and starred sections, especially in the Book of Revelation, a book that deals with the destruction of the earth as we now know it and the Great White Throne Judgment when all the unsaved are judged and condemned to damnation. When I was at the tender age of 10, I was scared to death about my own sinfulness and about burning in hell.
What does Louis know about damnation and hell, I thought? His life revolves around soccer and snacks and Star Wars and Xbox….
“I was an unhappy child,” I said.
He nodded and recorded my words on his iPad.
Every generation is unlike the one before it. I was raised in a different time and with different cultural imperatives than my own children. And now they are raising their families in ways that are again different.
All that damnation stuff from my childhood would make no sense to Louis.
Is it even necessary for him to understand it? Would he gain anything from it?
What do you think?
I think it was a very special sharing of a vastly different world, When we are together with Louis and his brother Elian we typically try to move into their worlds and enjoy doing so. This conversation yesterday offered the possibility for Louis of a glimpse into the truly strange and foreign environment of someone he cares deeply about.
Who knows what the impact of that may be over time?
My father told me many times about walking for miles to school through snow and ice when he was a kid…I’m not sure it impacted me?
His behavior was consistent with a man who would do those walks through the snow to school. His stories were consistent with his behavior and his behavior certainly influenced you greatly.
True. So maybe I chose a bad example…
Had dinner with my 16-year-old grandson tonight. He showed me how to use my iPhone and post stuff to Instagram. Talking with him about an age when we had partyline and land line telephones would have seemed slightly crazy! But I will some day – I owe it to him to try.
H, thanks for landing on my site!
So…as a world-renowned evolutionary theorist, I really would like you to answer this question I have.
Why?
What does your grandson gain from knowing about land lines or mine gain from knowing about my childhood fear of hell?
I suspect at 10 years old he can only gleen a certain understanding of time/history (only aging can teach us about time), but having someone he cares for share stories of their own past helps lay the groundwork for understanding that I think is important in the long run. I suspect even most teenagers have trouble grasping the previous generations experience (and vice versa)
From our side of the equation, I think aging changes our perspective so drastically that I don’t think we can even conceive of who we really were when were 10 or 18 or 25…. Those people weren’t smaller skinnier versions of us. They’re whole other iterations.
“…having someone he cares for share stories of their own past helps lay the groundwork for understanding that I think is important in the long run.”
That’s at the heart of my question, Brad, thanks! I wonder what parts of our history might be important for such understanding, and why?