When we came in last night from our visit with friends, we began going through our usual getting ready for bedtime routine.\u00a0 One part of this for me is a final check for book sales and clearing the email.<\/p>\n
There were no new book sales to be processed and after clearing the inbox, the only thing remaining for me to finish was to dump the junk email folder.\u00a0 And there it was.<\/p>\n
It was a message from a family member living and working in Europe.<\/p>\n
She had seen my blog of October 22 in which I had written of my grandfathers<\/a>.\u00a0 Evidently she was doing genealogical research and came across the names of all my grandfathers.\u00a0 They are, after all, a unique set of men – most having Spanish first names combined with the last name of Clark.<\/p>\n In a flurry of emails which literally flew half way around the world, we were able to reconnect and share memories which were 50 years old.\u00a0 From one memory, another would spawn, and then another from the first two.\u00a0<\/p>\n In years past, how could this have ever have been possible?<\/p>\n The Internet has proved its worth merely in helping families and friends reconnect and maintain connections.\u00a0 As we waited for the next email to arrive from Europe, Ardis and l discussed how small the world had become.<\/p>\n As we talked, the computer “pinged,” heralding a fresh, new batch of memories which became illuminated at the prodding of words from a cousin on the other side of the world.<\/p>\n I followed this up with a telephone call to another cousin here in the United States.\u00a0 More shared memories.\u00a0 Days in Bradenton, times in Tampa, childhood memories from and of Havana. \u00a0It was as if the memories could not stop flooding from somewhere in the dark recesses of my mind.\u00a0 They just kept coming.\u00a0 More and more memories.<\/p>\n I find now that as I grow older, some of the things my father told me are indeed, true.\u00a0 One thing he said standing out in my mind now is the fact we truly don\u2019t own anything we have here on this earth; we are merely using it for the short time we are here.\u00a0 I am also discovering that as I age, the smaller this huge planet actually becomes.\u00a0<\/p>\n I also\u00a0realize we, all of us, are one.\u00a0 Somehow, I find and believe even more every day, we are kin to one another.<\/p>\n With a little more genealogical research, maybe one day I can prove it.<\/p>\n -30-<\/p>\n \u00a9 2010 J. Clark<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When we came in last night from our visit with friends, we began going through our usual getting ready for bedtime routine.\u00a0 One part of this for me is a final check for book sales and clearing the email. There … Continue reading