2) I try to ascribe to that same mantra as you; “Say what you mean and mean what you say”. I think one of the reasons that many others may have a problem doing the same stems from the fact that saying what you mean and meaning what you say more often than not leads you to making very difficult decisions, many of which end up hurting yourself, or someone you care about, or end up causing you to deviate from this seemingly desireable “easy life”. Embracing the aforementioned mantra comes (in my opinion at least) hand in hand with a person being mature and truly becoming an adult. For different people this happens at different times.

I’ve worked since I was 10 years old and ever since I was about 15 I have been largely self sufficient (with the exceptions of room and board). That is the underlying reason for my maturity; I had to grow up faster than my peers simply because more was expected of me. I think you share a similar maturity with me, and in my estimation it probably stems from your childhood dream to ride. You were given the opportunity to get Maddie if and only if you made sacrifices of your own and attained certain goals set by your parents. Many other people (a quick evaluation of my own friends leads me to a rough percentage of greater than 90%) aren’t forced to grow up, evaluate what they want out of life and take steps to achieve those goals until much later in life. That is a weakness in them in my estimation.

Saying what you mean and meaning what you say is a wonderful way to live ones life. You just have to be prepared to stick to your guns when the choices you have to make hurt, and when the trivial becomes the all important.

Just my thoughts,

Chris

I think I have to explain that a bit more clearly. I think it is rather foolish to contemplate what others will think of us a thousand years from now. It is the stories we tell our children and our grandchildren which will form how we are remembered once we are dead and gone.

To an archaeologist we are data about an unknown or poorly known period of time. To those we love we are a living person to remember and cherish.

Bah, and the rambling begins. So much between the ears up here taht never makes it out coherently.

Chris

Everything in the basement belonged to my grandfather, and as my Aunt and I went through everything, sorting out that which would be thrown out, recycled, donated to charity or kept as momentos I learned a great deal about the man my sisters and I affectionately called “ooh-aah”.

I learned about his ability to take apart absolutely anything and everything he could get his hands on, and his equally remarkable ability to put it back together again in working order. I learned about his passion for art as I looked through sketchbooks of still life and nature scenes he had created and then squirreled away in the basement. I learned about his love of fishing, and of his regrets and new found value of life when we found a taxidermied (sp?) rainbow trout which he had mounted for display. My aunt told me how whenever he had showed her that fish he had recounted how foolish he had been to take something so beautiful and make it so ugly.

I learned more about my grandfather, and his life and dreams in that summer than I had in my previous 17 years of life, and sadly more than I would learn in the next 3 years before he died.

Regardless of the stories that the boxes of momentos and knick knacks will tell the archaeologists of the future, the truly important fact to consider is what stories they tell us, and our children, and our grandchildren. In the end, the story of who we are, and what we yearned for in life is only important to ourselves and the ones we love. Who knows, perhaps in fifty years or so your granddaughter will be writing a blog or a story about cleaning out your basement Renee, and how your mini helmet and boots brought to life the memories of her beloved grandmother and her zeal for horses. I think the story that will tell your fictitious granddaughter is much more fullfilling, rewarding and in the end worth while than the imaginative postulations of an archaeologist a thousand years from now.

While it would be remarkable to bring to life the artifacts of the past, in the end I think it would be invasive and disrespectful to intrude on the memories those items might have given their previous owners. To us as archaeologists it would provide an insight into the everyday life of the average person of the past. To the long departed though, those memories are much more than an academic contribution to ourselves, they represent their lives, and the legacy which they left their loved ones. Im not sure I’d want to intrude on that.

Chris

Jessica- Like I was just mentioning… I doubt facebook or myspace, or any other digital way of keeping up to date with others will ever truly replace one-on-one communication; it seems more like something out a sci-fi movie! I definitely agree that the flocking we see towards (and away from) facebook is akin to fuss that probably arose with the advent of e-mail, and cell phones. As we try to go faster, multi-task and be ever-more productive, we need to develop more efficient ways of getting to know people and keeping in touch so naturally these kinds of tools will come about. I guess I’m a little concerned that over time we’ll see “quantity” become more important than “quality” in terms of relationships.

ps- thanks for the link