KINDLED LEGACIES: Let me tell you what this is and what it is NOT.
This is NOT a collection of obituaries. There are other places you can find those. This is a documentation of lives lived, of victims AND survivors. It is a collection of stories of their strength in the face of a life-threatening disaster, of the love that they shared, and the foundation of HOPE that they laid for us ! Best of all, this is a living, ongoing publication. We are writing HISTORY… or better stated, YOU are writing history. BOOK#1 : A DOCUMENTARY OF A PANDEMIC Time Capsule of COVID-19
THESE ARE LIVING LEGACIES as told by freinds and families of loved ones and witnesses to a global pandemic. Thousands of people are lined up to share stories, to kindle the legacies of their loved ones, to tell their own stories of survival.
We are a generation obsessed with our own personal cultural anthropology. We dig through records to seek our roots, trace our lineage and even have our own DNA dissected in order to discover who we are and where we came from. Seldom in that conquest do we find actual documentation of one of our ancestor’s legacies. One might find a story of a slave in the Civil War, or service papers from a Veteran from WWII or Vietnam. These may provide bits and pieces of their legacy and perhaps some clues for posterity but not much.
Here we are now, in the throes of a global pandemic. Someday in the distant future someone will ask WHO WERE THEY? Who were the victims swept away in warp speed, snatched from their loved ones, without the opportunity to get their things in order, without the time to embrace and say a proper goodbye, without a customary burial to allow others to grieve? What gifts did they leave, in what way did they want to be remembered? What was the spark that drove their lives ?
Not only were there Victims but there were many more Survivors and Heroes. WHO WERE THE FIRST RESPONDERS, the FRONTLINE WARRIORS who cared for what seemed to be an endless surge of critically ill patients ? They came in for an eight hour shift and walked into a hellish nightmare. It was worse than any pandemic movie ever made ! Worse because unlike the movie, it didn’t end … and they were real people. The most respected head researcher, the main doctor called it “His Worst Nightmare”!
Working in that kind of battlefield frightened the care providers causing them to worry about their own safety! They wondered if they were effectively protected from the invisible Beast. Would they return to their homes to infect their own families, the new baby, their grandparents ? How much death could they stand to see before they collapsed, before they quit, before they succumbed to the virus or worse yet before they took their own lives in a state of desperation ? What can they tell us? What is their SPARK to help us kindle the new fire ?
This is NOT an ordinary book. It is a never-ending story that rolls into volumes and volumes. It is a BIBLIOTHECA of a Pandemic. IT is a HISTORY book that began by documenting an ongoing event. It is JOURNALISM that tells the Who, the What and the Where of their stories. It is a series of LOVE stories, and sometimes a cliff hanging MYSTERY. It is SCIENCE and RELIGION with ALL OF IT woven into an EVERLASTING DIGITAL TAPESTRY that tells the thoughts, the principles and behavior of people who lived here on our EARTH. We are a planet full of people all battling the same ENEMY, the deadly COV-19 Beast in a Pandemic. Let it NOT BE A TRAGIC STORY !
That Enemy tried to snuff them out. It crept up quietly, moving stealthily around their world. It established colonies in far off places and then attacked in full force across the ocean. It used their own human nature to trick them, trying to divide and conquer. It stirred up finger pointing. Who caused it? (Who cares, just fight it!) Then BLAME, ”If you would have done this first then that wouldn’t have happened.” Then GREED, “These supplies are mine, go get your own,” “NO, They are mine! You stole them!” And as they argued like children and acted deplorably, the Beast grew stronger - hiding and spreading, until it attacked again in peaks and valleys.
Just like the Devil, the Beast tried to convince them that it didn’t even exist! It planted conspiracy theories and dissent. The people were restless, locked away sheltered in place, hiding from something they couldn’t see. Who should they listen to? Why should they be prisoners in their own homes? And so the story goes on. They had no jobs, no money, no hope. Who will ultimately win? When will it be over?
Unbeknown to the enemy, SPARKS are flying - rising up from the death and destruction, flying up from the hands of the workers and the caregivers, and even from those who are sheltered at home as they attempt to hide away from the pandemic. Those burning legacies have sparks that seek to rekindle the hearts of mankind. If only enough of them could come together in one place!
Then came the assignment: Give them crisp new parchment, unlimited scrolls, nestled deep in the depths of an Amazon darkness and perhaps they could set the world afire with their heartfelt stories, secrets for happiness or rules to abide by. Let them aspire to greatness, memorialize their loved ones (living and dead) or simply provide a word to inspire a new generation!
This is NOT the place for unresolved anger. This is NOT a soapbox for name calling or for politics or divisions of any kind. It IS a place for healing, a place for peace, for preserving all that is good, as kindling for a new flame!
We pray that you will join us and contribute your stories for publication as this becomes:
BOOK ONE in the bibliotheca of KINDRED LEGACIES !
