August 4th THE SIGNATURE

While recently visiting with Nancy Joroff, I was struck by a story she told, of a presenter asking the question, “What is history?”, and a wise child recognizing that the very presentation they were partaking in was, in fact, history as of the next moment. Ah, from the mouths of babes!

This idea can be stretched in a number of directions, leading us to several conclusions and causing us to ask a number of questions. As I personally considered the implications, I thought about how advanced and sophisticated we get to feeling, with our technology and new information. We walk through Francisco Fort Museum, look at what seem to be archaic agricultural methods and old-fashioned medical methods (Lord, have mercy!) and with a scoff say, “Can you imagine?” And yet, as pointed out by a child, we will soon be pushed into the same category, “the past” – and in a matter of time 2011 will be clustered into a university course titled “1880s-2020s”, and folks will hardly flinch in assuming we knew little more than those 150 years before us. We will be nothing more, to some, than “Answer B” on a mid-term.

This changes things. Yes, it humbles us. Yes, it causes us to question how we will be remembered. Yes, it makes us value things of before. What is also does, I hope, is push us to realize that we cannot be separated from our history; we are simply the continuation of another man’s story. And, as such, we should recognize a grave responsibility.

Take for a moment the labor disputes depicted so clearly (and, often, violently) in our mining exhibits. We have two choices as observers: to exhale in relief that we are no longer gunned down for picketing unfair corporations and establishments, or to ask if we have finished the job. Surely, we still face unfair employee treatment, and live in a global society still fighting the basics. Tomorrow, my story will have melded with those of the men whose bullets, now displayed in our museum, were pulled from their dedicated dead bodies. Will my efforts flow in our common chapter?

If you’re looking for a reason to visit or revisit our community’s museum, you don’t have to do it to support the new director. You don’t have to do it to cherish your lineage’s preservation, and you don’t even have to view it as fiscal support. Realize that a visit to our museum is an opportunity to read your own prologue, and to think contemplatively about how you will complete your chapter in La Veta’s rich story.