I come from a long line of LDS (Mormon) pioneers, now when I say that, I mean a lot from both sides!! Not only do I have a lot of ancestors that joined the saints in this life, but since I have lots of generations, those that weren't baptized in this life have no doubt been baptized by proxy at least more than once. So I grew up with lots of family stories about these larger than life people that survived angry mobs, buffalo stampedes, famine, drought, plaque, and grasshoppers. Yes, it's a pretty impressive legacy, after all who wouldn't be impressed by an ancestor that stole the Connecticut charter from King George's governor and hid it in the Charter Oak? Or the ancestor that while settling Manti, lived in a dugout at the bottom of the temple hill - only to awake in the middle of the night to rattlesnakes dropping from the shelf above them? Or even a larger than life Grandpa that helped get Glen Canyon Dam built by testifying to Congress?
It's awesome, and it's awful.
Who can live up to that? What's left for me in my advancing years as I look at my accomplishments? After all what will my descendants say about me? "She did analysis for the EPA's Information Collection Rule" or "She was still getting bucked off horses into her latter years" In the modern era it's pretty difficult to accomplish "great" things...my life is pretty domesticated. Honestly, if the truth is known, I don't know that I have the desire to do great things. Maybe I'm comfortable in my little corner of the world, with my animals, lab work, and family.
If the whole truth is known, maybe my ancestors would not necessarily want to be viewed as legends either. They did what they needed to, after all, what choice did they have when faced with their options. They were just human and they bucked up, went forward, survived and raised their children. At the end of our lives, I think we just want to know that we made some difference in the lives of the people we love.
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