The Stepping Stones of Life are very Slippery

By Dan Barber

From the time we take our first steps to become a toddler we are launched on a quest for adventure. I recall living in a world where everything was big. The house I lived in with my parents and grandparents was huge, the walk I took with my grandfather to the corner store seemed like it took forever… Of course my grandfather was walking and I was running to try to keep up with him. The amount of time I had to wait for Christmas took forever. Also, while in school the day seemed to drag on and on until recess or the end of the day. Summer break seemed like a forever blissful playtime because the days were so much longer than in the winter…more light from the Sun, same amount of hours in the day…I know that now.

Many years later when I took my children by the old house and neighborhood where I spent my toddlerhood I was amazed by how everything in my young life had shrunk. The house was much smaller than I remembered, the distance to where the corner store once stood now seemed to be right next door to the small house! Somehow my universe shrunk.

Time also seems to be speeding by faster and faster. It seems like just I graduated from high school but in fact I just turned 65 and had to sign up for Medicare! With nine Grandchildren and a Great Grandchild on the way makes the time between birthdays and holidays way too short a time to get caught up.

I’ve been told a number of times over my lifetime that I was “wasting my time” by “doing nothing.” I counter that it isn’t possible to “waste time” because time will continue on until the end and there isn’t any clocks or calendars around to measure it. Also, it’s not possible to “do nothing” because just the act of doing nothing is in itself is doing something.

A couple of years ago I wrote something about my 3-year-old, at the time, grandson. We spent a morning just sitting on a bench at Knott Sky Park here in our neighborhood watching a park and recreation employee riding around on a mower cutting the grass while my grandson was breathing in and out on his harmonica. We could have been mistaken for wasting our time doing nothing, but we were being hypnotized by the beautiful morning and the hum of the riding lawn mower and my grandson’s out of tune musical experiment. What I was doing was working on my immortality, at least in the memory of my grandson. In addition we were soaking up some Sun and the vitamins it provided.

I suspect that a lot of people can equate the waste of time and doing nothing with our political leaders we elect to represent us. We all know, or should know, that politics is always local, which means a Senator, who was voted into office by the population center of Las Vegas to represent the State of Nevada will no doubt be very popular with the people of Las Vegas, but could be considered a total moron by the folks who live in Elko, Nevada or some other small town in the state.

I suspect that I need a lot more time to work on my immortality with my other Grandchildren and, soon a Great Grandchild, so I’d better stop wasting my time by rambling on here about doing nothing and get busy doing something!

Genetic Memories rerun

By Dan Barber

I do believe that we possess some genetic memories from our ancestors.  When I start reading about or researching my ancestors, I can almost travel back in time and imagine what my ancestors had to go through just to live... They had an impact on me and an impact on American society.

My 11^th Great Grandfather, Henry Bull, and several others had a falling out with the Puritans in Massachusetts back in the early 1600s so they left and moved south to Newport, Rhode Island.  There they didn’t want to be judged or harassed just because of their religious beliefs, so they drafted and signed the Newport Compact creating a community free of religious persecution.  This doctrine allowed the first Jewish Synagogue and the First Baptist Church on this continent to be built in Newport, R.I.  The Newport Compact was probably one of the precursors leading to the idea to ensure separation of Church and State as it’s spelled out in our Constitution.  And people have been fighting about the intent of the idea ever since.

In 1839 a young Martin Hirsch, a recent German immigrant, left civilization behind in Pennsylvania and joined the other westward bound German settlers and homesteaded a claim on what was then the edge of the American frontier in a relatively new state called Missouri.

Missouri was annexed as America’s 24th state only 18 years earlier in 1821. Martin found a fine and productive claim located about 12 miles southwest of present day St. Joseph, Missouri. He met 17-year-old Mary Jane Raney and they were married on August 7, 1845. During this period of time in history, England was threatening to recognize Texas as an independent country, this forced the United States Congress in 1845 to annex Texas as the 28th state which led to the Mexican War which began May 8, 1846, and lasted until 1848.

As with many other homesteaders of Missouri at the time, Martin and his new bride spoke only German.  While surviving in this rural isolation, with the threat of the Mexican’s from the south, and the Indians all around, Martin built a home, cleared the land and created a farm, got married and raised a family.  His children grew up, survived a Civil War, and Americanized the spelling of their name to “Hersh” and moved on to other parts of the country to build their own legacies in Kansas and Nebraska.

My great-grandfather, William, homesteaded near Broken Bow, Nebraska where my Grandfather, Norval, and his brothers were born… they all lived through snow storms, locust infestations, tornadoes and illnesses that took many lives.   I’m quite sure that if I were placed down in the 1839 wilderness of this country that I would soon starve to death or die from exposure to the weather.

William spent many months away from home as he worked for the Union Pacific Railroad, as a superintendent of construction, building many train depots in small communities on the spur lines of the railroad… many of which survive to this day… albeit as museums or relics of the past.

Grandpa Hersh wasn’t interested in farming or ranching… after a stint in the United States Marine Corps during World War I, he returned to Nebraska and moved to the big city of Omaha, where he worked and lived until he retired.  He then moved to California to be closer to his children and grandchildren.

My Grandfather’s short Marine Corps experience provided him with the Marine Corps discipline for the rest of his life.  I adored my Grandpa and Grandma Hersh and spent every minute I could with them.  Grandpa Hersh always seemed to be very business-like and always impeccably dressed and groomed.  Whenever he walked anywhere, which was almost always, his pace was always brisk.  If I was with him, he was always telling me to “pick up your feet.”  When I was five years old, I could never figure out how to pick up my feet without falling on my behind.  But, because of that experience, I never wasted any time in getting to where I was going while walking.  It also seemed as though Grandpa was always cleaning or polishing something… again this was probably something he got from his Marine Corps experience.

He was also an avid collector… he collected stamps, coins, and rocks.  Grandpa’s favorite hobby was Rock Hounding.  His collection had specimens from all over the world.  If he spotted a rock while taking a walk, he couldn’t resist bending over and picking it up to inspect it.  Every rock in his collection had a number on it, and Grandpa kept a ledger with the number listed from the rock with the common and scientific name for the rock or mineral and where it was found or who gave it to him.  After he retired Grandpa had more time to clean and polish, garden and collect things.  Grandpa even got into polishing rocks and making jewelry.  At Grandpa and Grandma’s house, it was impossible to find one weed in Grandpa’s lawn or garden, or anything out of place in their perfectly maintained home.  Their home and garden was the pride of the neighborhood.

I can see some of my Grandpa Hersh in my children and grandchildren today.  My oldest son is an avid Rock Hound, and when I would take my oldest granddaughter out for a walk when she was younger, she couldn’t resist stooping over to pick up a rock to inspect to either reject or put in her pocket.  It’s that genetic memory thing…  Now she is very impeccable in her dress and grooming… and she is always cleaning or polishing something… today she is an accomplished photographer and proud Army wife living with her husband in Washington state.

Trust in your beliefs

By Dan Barber

I believe that old "Faustian bargain" if one sells their soul for fame or fortune then they will eventually have hell to pay… whether you have faith or not, our history shows us that this statement is true.

There are those who obtained what they thought was very important to them only to discover that it caused great pain.  Perhaps they reached the pinnacle of their life early and then had to live on for many years on the downside of that high to the end, always missing what they once had.  How many once famous people have recognizable faces but seem to be adrift because no one cares about them anymore because their talent burned itself out, or they no longer have a purpose in people’s lives.

I thought that I had a goal once… a goal that could have destroyed my loved ones and myself if I had achieved it. Fortunately, I discovered the path towards that goal was fun, but the goal was not really my life’s purpose.  

For a long time, I thought that I needed to have someone write a script for me to have a personality or purpose. I discovered that I have a whole team of writers giving me purpose. My entire family is the team who give me my personality and purpose. I am very grateful for that discovery. My destiny was and is my family.

Our children and grandchildren give us our immortality if we can leave them with good memories  and life lessons that they can pass on to their descendants. Only then the memory of us will live on long after we are dust. I like being referred to as Husband, Dad, Grandpa, Brother, Uncle, Cousin and Friend. But with some of the grandkids living nearby, one of the titles can be exciting. There was once a television advertisement on when a little boy cries out “Grandpa!”… That startled me every time, it woke me from my nap quicker than anything because I thought that something has happened with one of the kids and they were calling for my help!

As I stated in an earlier blog, if our heavenly reward is to relive our life experiences over and over again as if it was the first time, then we need to create as many good experiences as we can right here on this earth. Don’t drag dreadful experiences to the grave with you because wouldn’t it be hell to have to relive those bad memories for eternity? I recently shared a thought on social media... “God will forgive you…just ask. Then forgive yourself and peace will follow.” I believe that.

A very smart young lady that I know told me that it is very hard going through life being angry all the time… it is much more fun to be happy, while, in the process of forgiving yourself, you might want to also forgive those who you might be angry with.