it is the way we forget

I drove past a stone pillar today surrounded by highway. It was old, probably at one point marking a farm entrance, it stood solitary and strong watching the world move and change around it. The farm was gone, the land eaten by concrete. The farm house was no where to been seen, probably fallen or torn down after neglect. The cattle, the horses, the sheep, buggies and people all gone yet this stone monument standing the test of time, almost forgotten by the rest of the world. It caused me to think about all that has gone on before me. How much of the world has lived, how much has been forgotten, lost for the rest of civilization. I am a person who loves history, I love knowing what has happened in the past, it fascinates me to watch people run the same cycles over and over again. It amazes me how easy it is for so many people to disregard the past and think that it will not effect their future. I find it shockingly horrid that so many of my peers don't know the history of the subject of their major at school, their parents history, let alone their forefathers history and especially not their country. The mortifying lack of responsibility by the elders in this country to teach the young generation about their lives, their fathers' lives and their ancestors lives is wretched. In my family for example I know that my mother's parents came on a boat from Italy but I know nothing of their lives in Italy or their families in Italy. This is not my mother's fault, nor is it her mother's fault but however my mother's mother's fault for refusing to tell stories of the old country to her children. I am grateful to my both of my parents for having an interest themselves in our history and for telling me stories of their childhood. I hope that everyone will not try to forget their past, that they will hold onto it, even the hard parts. That way at least they can learn from their own lives and maybe their children will learn from it as well.