Sharing Our Childhoods with You
This morning is the morning of Ray’s long awaited surgery. I cherish your prayers for him and our family this morning.
Today I would like to share an excerpt from Ray’s recent podcast about his memories of growing up in the 1950s and 1960s.
Sometimes the younger generation doesn’t understand what life was like for their parents and grandparents when they were growing up. Recently our son, who is in his mid 40s, was with his sons at the reproduction of a large stone fort that French settlers built in southern Illinois in the 18th century. John’s eight-year-old son asked him, “Was this the kind of house you had when you were growing up?”
The fort was Fort de Chartres, which is one of the stops
on the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail.
Ray and I visited there last fall.
The 19th century British historian Thomas Carlyle said, “The history of the world is but the biography of great men.” With all due respect to Mr. Carlyle, I disagree. Great men and women surely have a huge impact on history, but I believe history is also the story of millions of everyday people who live and work and pray, who love their families and keep alive the great truths of God, who do good and not evil, and who live as best they can in their corner of the world.
I know that my life is no more valuable or noteworthy–and no less valuable or noteworthy–than the millions of lives of those who have lived the same span of time as I have on this planet. The historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. said that history, by putting crisis in perspective, supplies an antidote to every generation’s illusion that its own problems are uniquely oppressive. In something of the same way, I think it’s easy for today’s young people to think that things have always been the way they are now–that we have always had cell phones, home computers, 300 channels on television, that today’s heroes are the only heroes that are worth admiring, and that in the past people wandered around in ignorance and confusion until the current generation came on the scene to make things right.
One job of today’s parents and grandparents is to tell them that this is not the case, that life was both harder and easier in times gone by, that yes we had patterns and habits that we should have realized were wrong because we weren’t ready to see it, but that we also had firmer answers for life because we hadn’t rejected those answers. And we had heroes that would put some so-called heroes of today in the shade.
Ray went on to tell about his experiences growing up in the 1950s and 1960s. I hope you enjoy listening to them here. Last Thursday Ray and I sat in front of the microphone and his podcast producer, Titus Anderson, recorded Ray interviewing me about my own experiences growing up in the same time period 70 miles away. In many ways, our childhoods were quite different. That recording is Ray’s podcast which is to be released today. After the release, you can hear it today at Exploring History with Ray Notgrass.
Rather than Ray taking off from his podcast after his surgery, when we finished Ray’s interview of me, Titus interviewed both of us for the next two podcasts which are to be released on the second Tuesday and the fourth Tuesday of August. Those dates are August 8 and August 22. In the first podcast, we talk about how our childhoods influenced how we homeschooled our children. In the second one, we talk about how our childhoods impact how we write history. Ray and I have already listened to the recordings of all three of these podcasts, and they are ready for release today and those two Tuesdays in August. Mark your calendar, if you like, and you can find those podcasts here after their release.
Ray and Charlene in the 1950s
Today I hope you will think about these two thoughts of Ray’s from his original 1950s and 1960s podcast which I excerpted above.
The historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. said that history, by putting crisis in perspective, supplies an antidote to every generation’s illusion that its own problems are uniquely oppressive.
. . . it’s easy for today’s young people to think that things have always been the way they are now . . . , that today’s heroes are the only heroes that are worth admiring, and that in the past people wandered around in ignorance and confusion until the current generation came on the scene to make things right.
One pervasive sin in generation after generation is younger people believing they know better than those who have gone before. It goes back at least to Solomon’s son Rehoboam. The result that time was devastating to God’s people. The kingdom of Israel split in two, never to be united again. What a waste it is not to learn from those who have gone before us and from those who have lived longer than we have.
King Rehoboam consulted with the elders who had served
his father Solomon while he was still alive,
saying, “How do you counsel me to answer this people?”
But he forsook the counsel of the elders
which they had given him, and consulted with the young men
who grew up with him and served him.
1 Kings 12:8
Yes, today’s problems are real and oppressive, but they have been real and oppressive before. God is still in charge.
The counsel of the Lord stands forever,
The plans of His heart from generation to generation.
Psalm 33:11
Praying for a safe and successful surgery and recovery for Ray.