Need To Know

"Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things."

Philippians 4:8

The writer CS Lewis said "The most difficult thing in prayer, the real me talking to the real God, not what I think I am, or what I think he is." 

As a Field Grade Army Officer, I knew and lectured about the Military "Need to Know" restrictions. If anything is specific sensitive enough, there are only certain people who are allowed to know. The more sensitive the information, the more qualifications there are for meeting the "Need to know"  approval access... such as espionage. 

We go through life keeping to ourselves many things which we should reveal... The opportunity is just never there. I could not tell you how many times I have been called about ancestry, where people in my family are buried. A cousin called recently to ask me if I had any idea about the age of the "foot washing basins" in the family church. They all know that I am the oldest, they know that I payed attention to such things. WHO WILL THEY ASK WHEN I AM GONE? This is one reason I have written these blogs about my life, my ancestry, my travels, my ancestors land holdings, even the mannerisms-attitudes-intelligence, of the past.

In my lifetime, the entire world has changed. All knowledge now comes from a thinking machine. Today's youth cannot fathom the joy and suffering of mothers over sick children anymore than they can understand the joy and suffering of Christians as they look across a sin ravaged world. 

When the North Vietnam Officials first entered Saigon and gained control of that city which had been headquarters for the United States and the South Vietnamese, these Anti-Christian, false religion, leaders first words were: "we must get rid of all this Western decadence."

Words that so aggravate me, whether they come across in one to one conversation, or the parsing of words on television and talk radio, "Do you know what I mean?" or "Do you know what I'm trying to say?" Of course we do not know what you mean or what you are trying to say. It is in your mind, and do you think we have a right to know? If so, make it plain, speak your mind. It is from the heart that the mind speaks. Most of us are smart enough to discern hypocrisy, deceit. 

"Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." 

Philippians 2:5-8 

Do you hunger and thirst for honesty?

Is it possible: that families and nations can unite for the benefit of man kind?

Is it possible: babies can be born loved, cared for? Not abused as children?

Is it possible: that government can be honest with it's citizen's, not deceitful?

Only 1% of the American population believe the Governments account of 9-11.

Is it possible: that modern men can look at news broadcasts without being ambushed by false flag news such as a ridiculous story about a psychotic pilot taking down a plane? 154 college students being slained in Kenya? Or 219 school girls kidnapped in Nigeria. 

Even more ridiculous and they expect the world to swallow such in the bottomless ocean of technology: Malaysian 370 totally disappearing from the face of the earth?

Is it possible: the international bankers could be satisfied with small profits instead of profits from constant warfare, terrorism and spending (America is constantly involved in war, our enemies cannot produce war equipment or the books which radicalizes them)?

General Smedly Butler told us long ago that "War is a racket."

Is it possible: that justice can reign on earth? In this bipolar world, where adults spend an average of four hours per day watching trash on television? Where it is the ambition of big pharma and big medicine to have every human being addicted to prescription drugs?

Is it possible: ever, that austerity would start at the top instead of the involuntary servitude visited on the hard working, tax paying, god fearing poor people who can barely survive?

The atheist can never understand or explain the caretaker of the planets. The conscious in the mind of every man. God's greatest creation is man, the mind of man. This world traveler noted that across every continent, people talked their own language. You know what is in their mind by their words. Just as you know the mind of a man by his conversation. This writer can read a man very quickly from his appearance: if he wears a clean shirt and tie, if his shoes are polished. I can tell the quality of manhood by the way a man keeps his car. It is a sorry man who has a dirty car (cups, cans, trash on the floorboard). I can tell you much about a man by his habits, his correspondence, the books he reads. Most of all, how he treats his mother. 

But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

Hebrews 11:6

Faith is a verb. Action based on belief, sustained by confidence. For one to be a man of faith, one must have courage and courage is 90% faith. We know about the Martyrs of the past. We know about many of today's martyrs, men and women living and proclaiming Christianity in spite of torture, we know about those in Syria, Iraq. Many church members, who claim the name of Christ do not have the courage to remember what he did for them at his table, his broken body- shed blood. "There is a need to know about his healing, forgiving through his death and resurrection."

#1718

Supper Time

Most elderly “folks” have told me, that as they age, their fondest memories, regardless of how far or how high they have gone in this world, memories of their early years at home.

I remember supper time, the large farm kitchen, with it's wood stove, fireplace and large eating table. Many times there was not much food but what was there, was blessed.

During WWII, my father was away, the entire time, working on defense “projects”... building barracks and even hangars for planes, in the war effort. He and his brothers were not in uniform, but in work clothes. His brothers worked in the shipyard.

My mother, with hired help, kept the farm going as did her aged father and other older relatives.

I remember, some ”supper times” only one bowl on the table... often potatoes, but my favorite, rice and tomatoes. My mother had a large pantry filled with canned tomatoes and other vegetables from the garden.

A few years ago, visiting at my beach house, one of my snooty aunts, remembering eating supper with her poor sister and the one big bowl, said, “do you still like rice and tomatoes?”

I have made it a practice to live frugally, never forgetting (the hole from which you were digged.) (Isaiah 51:1))

Jesus did not tell us to remember Him at Christmas, Thanksgiving, any other time, only, the grace and mercy found at His memorial table, the Lord's Supper (1 Corinthians 11, Isaiah 53) the wine, represented the shed blood of Christ, the bread, representing the stripes on His body, His atonement, on the cross, free gift to all who believe, the shedding of His blood for all sin, (past, present, future) His broken body for our healing. (all diseases, all infirmities) Knowing the true meaning, we can celebrate at this table worthily.

Every morning of my life , I celebrate, communion, in memorial but, on Sunday morning, at my communion, I cook some rice in a boiler, and then at lunch, mix tomatoes with the rice... a memorial to my humble beginnings, which I never want to forget.

Corinth, was a Greek city located on an isthmus of the Mediterranean. Stormy, rough waters, early ships were unloaded of their cargo on one side of the isthmus, the cargo transported across land to the other side. Until a canal was dug, because of the many sinkings, the vessels were dragged across to the other side. At this growing city, people from across Europe, arriving in Corinth, became a wild-traveler's city and much instability in the early Christian church located there. Their memorial service would often lead to excessive drinking so, Paul, in his letter to the church there, cautioned them about the unworthiness of the memorial to the Lord's atonement.

The Lord's supper, recurrent ordinance of the new testament church (initial ordinance, baptism) with joy, should be celebrated often. People have often asked me, how you recognize a Christian... so many pretenders. Always, without fail, those who love God's word. Those who read it, listen intently to it, can never get enough of it. I have encountered “card-signers” who tell me that they have never participated in a communion service. Shame, a disgrace to the word Christian. Very much like the girl who was baptized at First Baptist Church, Goldsboro, NC one Sunday night. Before the evening service did not stay for the service but went, instead, to an uptown movie theatre. Do you really think there was a change in her life? .

I know about transubstantiation, the beauty of the Catholic communion but, when Jesus initiated His memorial service He was alive, a man of flesh and blood, and I believe, He wants symbolic memorial.

At His table, we evaluate ourselves, are we living the best version of Him?

To the uninitiated, everything is obscure. Hundreds of times from the platform, this layman, not a minister, has descried the first visual image of my life, which I can remember. That ancestral country church, my mother on her knees, washing another woman's feet. The foot-washing service is the most beautiful part of God's memorial service.

Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints. (Psalm 116:15) The greatest memorial service on this earth is the celebration of the life of a believer. The greatest celebration of a believer, passing from physical to spiritual life is the great supper time of the church (bride) with Jesus Christ... and “whosoever will” may come.

Legacy

I know of no word that has undergone more transition in my lifetime than the word “legacy”. The book, the Bible, written by God, involves more about legacy or forebearers than anything else. The Bible is a true history book, a true genealogy book, a book for every purpose, an answer to every question. Prophet and poets were known by their ancestors; in speaking of a Biblical character, you always had a resume of genealogy.

The early power brokers of the world were involved in genealogy. Some of you just watched a royal wedding in England, where much legacy and genealogy were involved. We hear of American politicians speak of their legacy...Clinton, Bush, Carter, etc. We have one in the White House now without legacy, and with questionable forebearers. I have heard two experts in investigation say that nothing can be learned about the man, just much conjecture.

Many books have been written about genealogy, some spend a lot of time tracing their genealogy, and many find much pride in their genealogy (The Mayflower Society, etc.). One of my cousins spent much time and money establishing her son in the Sons of the American Revolution. The Daughters of the American Revolution is perhaps the world's best known genealogy group, next to the Mormon church.

A young man from Arizona applied for a job from me recently. He told me that his mother was in prison, and that she had been in prison for a long time for trafficking in drugs. I met a young lady who told me that she had adopted two children whose parents were in prison because of drugs. I have known young men who had never seen their father...knew nothing about their own genealogy. Think of the dismay of these individuals when they study their ancestry, it's no wonder so many young people think they come from pond scum.

As an antiquarian book collector, at auctions, buying boxes of books, you would be surprised how many family Bibles are just discarded, containing family genealogy records. At one time this was the chief source of family information, along with family graveyards. One of my cousins was interested in locating the burial place of our great great grandparents. I told him of the church cemetery where I had been told the graves were located. I said, “another cousin, investigating before you, told me the gravestones had been laying on the ground for a very long time, evidently knocked over by a storm.” She had gotten the information she wanted from the grave markers, and I told her I would help her pay the expenses of getting the tombstones set back up.

There is nothing as forgotten as the family graveyard...legacy, buried and forgotten. I have advised many churches, particularly rural churches, churches where family bloodlines were so important. that they should have a gallery in the church, walls covered with pictures, labeled, of long-dead, but important church and family members (church ball teams, choirs, pastors, etc.). I gave the money for this in one church where all the previous pastors' pictures were displayed. Those who gave so much should be appreciated more.

Along with books and other memorabilia that I have collected in buying antiquarian books, magazines, almanacs, and catalogs, there were often military documents. It bothers me to think of men who gave so much in the military having their photographs, orders, and decorations just thrown away. Even in my own family, old photographs of probably very important people, with nothing written on the back so no one could make a record. In olden times, photographs were very rare, very expensive. Even in my lifetime, photography was rare. Many grandchildren--and certainly great grandchildren--have no idea about their ancestry, their appearance, etc. On her death bed, my oldest aunt said to me, “you look just like grandpa.” Knowing now, knowing when he died, she was probably the only grandchild who remembered him. At the time, and for many years, I had a mustache. Finding a marked photograph of him, as was the case with many men of his time, he had a mustache; and everyone said, when comparing our pictures, very much the same.

I attended a municipal meeting in the boardroom of a large bank, it had been the headquarters of the founding bank. The walls were covered with portraits of past bankers of distinction, former banking board members whose easily recognized names almost gave a history of the city, the city's industry, department stores, etc. Most of the time, businesses, civic clubs, fraternal orders, even churches give little honor to past legacy.

Many of my relatives thought God was narrow-minded--that it was impertinent and excessive, even down-right unholy, to show pride or affection toward ancestry...that here and now is all the matters. I am very thankful for my legacy, my ancestry, my hard-working, God-fearing, attentive parents, grandparents, right on back, who passed the true values of life through the generations. I want my progeny to have the same values with which I was instilled, the fortress of Christian faith, the honor of hard work, the values of education, decency, personality, servitude to both God and man.

In my ancestry, the greatest values: God, family, and country. As far back as I can investigate, my family had four interests, the church house, the schoolhouse, their house and the houses of their neighbors. Their legacy, my ancestors built the local churches, built and supported the local schools, hard work, conservatism in their own farms, homes, businesses and professions. Loving and giving, not only to one another, but to neighbors. I could give many examples in my home; during the Great Depression, a large black family, the Bunn family, living on the land since the days of slavery. Mr. Ben Bunn came to my mother's door, “Ms. Sally, my children are starving. Do you have any food?” Many starved during the Great Depression. She gave me a large paper bag and said, “Thomas, go to the potato hill and fill this bag.” She went to the “smokehouse” (outside building where meats and other foods were stored) and got large bags of pork bones and hominy grits. That food kept his family alive.

Aunt Caddy, my great grandfather's sister, was a teacher at the two-room school. My father was chairman of the school board of the large, consolidated school. Today, 40 million Americans, 15 years or older, are illiterate. There is no excuse for this. 100 years ago, it was hard to find an illiterate person, black or white, in eastern North Carolina.

In 1953, DNA was discovered. I still believe this is the greatest discovery in the 20^th Century. Each of the billions of cells in your body gives thousands of pages of information about your genealogy...our looks, your health characteristics, your personality. Your greatest genealogical characteristic, you were designed and chosen by the very Hand of the Creator of the universe to be who you are at this time in history.

Decade of Foolishness

Tomorrow is the first day of another decade, 2000-2010 has gone by so quickly. It has been a decade of foolishness, more so than any decade I have studied in the history of man. You would think that we would have learned something by now, I remember so well our panic with the turnover of the century, whether computers would recognize the new century. In panic, not knowing what would happen in the stock market, I made many transfers into certificates of deposit, and of course, with the government involved in everything, scrutiny needed in order to have sufficient FDIC coverage.

What difference would it have made? We live in a world where no one wants things to be black and white, just a hue of gray. Mankind is repulsed by right and wrong, good and evil. Everything, whether physical, spiritual, financial, psychological needs to be in ambiguous shades of gray.

God talks to us, but we refuse to listen. With our technology, cell/smart phones, computers, nuclear weapons...we think we are so wise that in our wisdom we can get along without Him (Romans 128). At this very time, we have one the largest blizzards, the most inundation of snow on the east coast that has been seen in most lifetimes, more rain and mud in the west coast. From New Mexico to Montana, the roughest weather of sleet, snow experienced in many years. Europe is also experiencing one of its worst winters in history.

Most of the world's population is on land north of the equator. After Noah's flood (4090 BC), a continuous upheaval, water falling for forty days and forty nights until it was 20 feet above the tallest mountain. Cataclysmic volcanoes, the entire crust, topography of the earth completely realigned. Like the eight human beings who God persevered from the water, Ham, Japheth, Shem, Noah, their wives and their children, most living for hundreds of years. It would take a stadium for them to have a family reunion. Noah lived to the age of 850, his grandson, Methuselah, son of Enoch, living to age of 969. They ventured into areas of the world away from the earliest civilization of Ur and the Rift valley (a 2000 mile valley in East Africa), cities formed because of their location near rivers, valleys, economic and climate trade routes.

These people survived, multiplied, prospered because of preparation, and using common sense (exception, Nimrod, great grandson of Noah, who at Babylon tried to build a tower to heaven). As you now witness airports full of people stymied in their inability to cope with civilization, most just want someone to tell them what to do, a TSA employee for whom they have shown compliance and obedience, like human property in the slave market. The psychological and sociological phenomenon, which their tough, prepared, defiant ancestors would not recognize.

So much education has just been garbage, it is no wonder the tyrant takes over so easily: Stalin's 90 million in Russia, Mao's 100 million in China. Today's so-called scientists are more interested in a government grant than pure science, ready to dance to any tune the government plays in order get the “free money”. Most scientists, whether physical, medical, sociological, know that most of the required courses are never used, that information and preparation essential for performance can be obtain in a much shorter time, and that much available research is trash, just someone's opinion. The same is true in the arts, history, theology.

There is no rationale for why people do what they do...so much education, so little learning, so few capable of reacting to an unexpected. Much money is to be made in just taking advantage of a situation, keeping a patient trotting to the doctor, injecting quick obsolescence into every technology, built-to-fail, which must be replaced often. We have learned to accept the “Kleenex mentality”, fast food, the planned obsolescence in everything.

My friend, a prominent doctor, 88 years of age, born into poverty, self-acquired education, a veteran of Pacific combat, was having unexpected cardiac problems. His cardiologist said, “I have looked at all the reports, expensive surgery will prolong your life for a short time; but you have had a good life, go on home to heaven” and then he walked out of the room. Another doctor, one better prepared in natural treatments, removed the toxins of his body, particularly the chemical toxins of exotic medications. Because of this, my friend is still alive.

If the average person, able to read, one who his body better than anyone else and having some computer skills, would study his symptoms and all the information readily available, he would know his options and alternatives. It should be evident to even the most ignorant among us, that our nation cannot continue down the path which greedy corrupters have led us. To the uninitiated, everything is obscure, but anyone should be able to figure out that RINO Republicans such as both Bushes (41 and 43), and liberal communists such as Clinton and Obama (42 and 44) are just opposite sides of the same coin, beating us into slavery. A drowning man will grab at anything thrown to him, he should grab at the rope of intelligence, designed to save him, but as like many, he would grab at broom straw of promises, if thrown to him, and continue to drown.

Go back in history 500 years, before America was even discovered. There were hard working people with values, using common sense, prepared to combat nature's reversals. Go back another 500 years, 1000 years, a man married to a women (none of this perverted marriage, disgusting to both God and man), rearing and educating children. And so it has been throughout history, self-reliance, self-dependence on a master Designer. At the beginning of WWII the American population was one-half of today's population, mostly rural, hard-working, God-fearing, tax-paying citizens, ambitious and optimistic. Their country had been attacked by the enemy, and like their ancestors before them, when attacked, formed huge military forces, huge armaments (ships, tanks, planes, every buildable weapon of defense and destruction) never a thought of defeat. My parents, grandparents, their neighbors around them, sent their sons and daughters to the war, many to employment in defense industries, while they kept the farms going, raising the foods and fibers needed in the all-out struggle.

Today, we would have problems in every area of defense. The decade we are in now may “tell the rest of the story”(Paul Harvey also said, “only a millionaire knows you cannot live like one.”). American survival is no longer a matter of courthouse, church house, schoolhouse, it is a matter of the mind.

Hinge

We are all familiar with the hinge, hinges on house and vehicles of every kind. Usually, the common hinge is divided into two types: strap hinge and T-hinge. The midpoint of a hinge is called the pivot. For the purpose of this article, I want to call one side of this hinge - the past, the pivot – the present, and the other side of the hinge – the future. In the now, we are all in the pivot, the past is history, the future is a mystery.

I was a hardworking, inquisitive student in 1953 when the Watson and Crick book, The Double Helix, was published, and the discovery of DNA was announced. I still consider this the greatest discovery of the 20th century. Here we see the very beginnings of life, in each of the billions of cells in an organism, plant or animal, yielding thousands of pages of history regarding all living organisms, with the exception of some viruses.

Books can be written about the pros and cons of this knowledge: genetic engineering, cloning, and certainly the solving of many mysteries, one of the greatest, knowledge about your ancestry. From the time the mother's egg is fertilized by the father's sperm (conception), a new life is formed. With the genus homo, chosen, elected, no other person in the world like you, different facial characteristics: voice, flex of your iris, hand and foot prints. You are the possessor of your own soul, your own mental facilities, no other personality in the world like yours. We either believe in the soul, or not at all. We either believe in the sinful state of man, or not at all. We either believe in world corruption or not at all. We either believe in decency or not at all.

We live in a profane, not a holy world. Vulgarity has taken over, we live in a fallen world. I do not believe there were any more sinful conditions before the Great Flood of 5000 BC than you find today. I do not believe there was more sin in Sodom and Gomorrah at 3000 BC than there is today. Young people should have enough sense to know that the world cannot continue in the direction in which it is going. The counterfeit always looks like the real, you study the real to discover the counterfeit. Your greatest blessing is to have the history side of the hinge on which you can cling: resolute parentage, resolved patriotism. You have little else on which to hang, wealth is easily lost, looks fade with age.

Pew Research polling tells us that 78% of all Americans consider themselves Christian. Look around you and you will determine that most of these people are deceived, the tares have taken over the church. Compare yourself with scripture, not the so called Christians. God would not recognize, nor would many of our ancestors identify with those in our culture who call themselves Christians.

50% of all marriages end in divorce, 70% of all black children are reared in single family homes. Many children do not know what their father looks like, do not know his name, know nothing about their ancestry. It has been a long time since I've had anyone around me who could tell me about their grandparents or great-grandparents. Members of my own family know nothing about their ancestors. Of importance to them, today, is what is happening today, a big house, a big car, acceptance by the world, the flesh, the devil. They know much more about the pedigree of their pets.

Over and over, through the years, as an antiquarian book collector, I have found records, photographs, memorabilia that some family should have prized. I have the photograph of General Eisenhower pinning a silver star on one military colonel. I had a book from the Indian wars, in which one thoughtful mother had put pages in the book, (evidently she did not have a family Bible) comprising a complete family record, with births, deaths, records of several generations.

I have in my possession, records of my own ancestors arriving in America, those who died crossing the Atlantic, what they went through in their early years. I have a survey map of the first farm in Morristown, New Jersey (signed by the first surveyor A. Peacock), I have the fireplace cooking pot on which they depended for nutrition. If it were not for me, these things would have disappeared long ago.

My aunt Sarah died at age 98 (her husband was my grandfather's brother). She was born two years before her father left to fight as an officer in the Civil War (1861). My aunt Mary, my father's sister, and I went out to our family country church to aunt Sarah's funeral. Her husband had died 50 years before, and was buried in a family graveyard. Most of my uppity relatives are buried in town, it is rare for one to be buried in that graveyard. Leaving the graveyard, my aunt said, “I have a taped conversation of her talking with me about her youth.” She was from a family of prominence and wealth (Bagley), still loved the country church...always sat on the front row, a small woman who always wore a hat. All of her grandchildren, well-educated, prominent, have moved on. They were much better than the rest of us, never went to the old family church, or family reunions.

My aunt played this tape of aunt Sarah talking at a family reunion, I still remember it, tragic that none of her family have this valuable information and the sound of her voice. I have no idea what has happened to it. She said, “on the day my father returned from the war, I walked down the road with my dog Tag. Uncle Ben, the family black man who worked around the house, always followed from a distance to make sure nothing happened to me. I heard horses come galloping down the road. I didn't remember my father very well, but I knew it was him...we had heard that the war had ended. He knew me, stopped, scooped me up on his horse, kissing me as he rode toward the house. He said, over and over, 'I have dreamed of this day'. My mother came out on the porch, laughing and crying. He took off his sword and laid it on the porch. He would grab my mother, kiss her and then grab her again.” I remember seeing that sword hanging over her fireplace, she later married my uncle, uncle Perry, who died at 56. They had 5 children, all prominent, and aunt Sarah was known throughout eastern North Carolina.

My own grandmother, that farm home, like all the other farm homes, a place of ancestral tranquility. I remember my grandmother's very large handwoven basket with a handle in which she took food to the church. My own mother inherited that basket and used it for the same purpose.

Recently I gave two large, covered bowls to a college where I had given the money for a heritage room (A room in the library where ancestral records are kept pertaining to families and churches of eastern North Carolina). I told them, “I know these two relics were brought over from England when my family first arrived, they should be in that collection.”

I was thrilled, as a student at the state university at Chapel Hill, to find historical records of my colonial ancestry (North Carolina Room, Wilson Library). So often, in the daily beat of life's demands, the routine of survival, we forget the importance of our inheritance. A young man sat across the table from me and my secretary, my secretary said she had never seen such hurt and hatred in his eyes when he said to me, “I have nothing, my mother gave me away.”

It is so important at the pivot point of our life, to pass on this knowledge, to those on the other side of the hinge. Those who must face life and living in the future, they are going to need the sanity of the past, in order to capture the possibilities of the future. With their knowledge, I hope they will have the wisdom to be anchored on the firm foundation of God's redeeming love.

If you were to ask someone, “what have you been doing with your life?” and the person would say, “I was hit in the highway while chasing my hat, by a log truck”, you would know that the person was lying or pretending. If anyone had been hit by a log truck, he would be changed forever, when you are a new creation in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17), you are changed forever. The world, and the things of the world no longer have any attraction for you. You can live in the world without being part of it, different, most of us do not want to be different, we want to be accepted by everyone. In 21st century America, it is the vulgar, the decadent, the profane that is acceptable, popular. When our ancestors were alive, to be Christian, to uphold Christian principles, was expected. In today's world of abortion, same-sex marriage, rush towards anti-Christ, Christianity is the most unpopular thing in the world, witchcraft is the fastest growing religion in America.

21st century America has no shame. We do not mirror our ancestors, God's nature is not in us. The things we love, God hates, if you are saved, God will not let you dress like the world, God will not let you love the music of the world, God will not let you love the addictions of the world, and when you get tainted by the world, God will make you miserable because he will remind you of your ancestors, what they expected of your country, and what it has a right to expect from you. You are the pivotal point, there is no escape from your inheritance of the past or your responsibilities for the future.