Learning To Be Human

"The way we spend our days, is, after all, the way we spend our life," said Annie Dillard. These are stories of my days growing up in a traditional family in middle America - an American childhood. They are the day-to-day stories (as I remember them) about my life as I lived it, against the backdrop of sweeping changes in the world at large. These are tales of life on my parents' farm in Ohio in the 1940s and 50s, school years, becoming a young adult, marrying and raising a family during the tumultuous social unrest of the 1970s. Then came the experiences of the later years and relationships in a new setting of rural northern New Mexico. This is the way I have spent my days.

In a much older, earlier culture, I would be telling stories of the past, sharing knowledge through that oral history, teaching the tribe's customs and traditions to the young ones. Maybe that's what compels me to share these stories, the urge to share the clan stories. The myths and legends. The history. The way things were and how we got here. How my one life has been influenced and shaped by the enormous changes in the surrounding culture.