The Secret Birthright of My Bloodline, page 1

Originally posted by KSPigpen
I am very curious how receptive your child has been to her place in this story and if she has been rebellious about her role in your family's lineage. How about you? Was there a time when you didn't want the responsibility?

One more question...(for now) do you ever see it as more of a burden than a privilege? Have you ever just wanted to walk away from it all?

Because it is something we are raised with and shown by example by our family, it is something that becomes very much an intrinsic part of who we are. As I have only had Joint-Custody of my daughter for the past 7 years, I was concerned that my daughter would be torn between how her mother lives and how I and my family have lived. It surprised me to see that she developed along the same lines as my family. (We jokingly say that we have Klingon blood because it burns hot, both euphorically and physically, and it shows in how ferociously intense and strong-willed we are in holding to our ideals.)

I have never told my daughter what to chose, or what to believe. I have left her free to discover and determine those things for herself. However, when you raise a child with freedom and provide them with the tools to make decisions on their own while living a morally outstanding life yourself to be as a living example, you'll find that the fruit doesn't fall far from the Family Tree.

She takes absolute pride in her name. She knows the heritage of her first name, and although it boggles Westerners and no one we have ever met can pronounce it even though it is only three letters long, she prides herself on the fact that it hasn't been used for over 1600 years, and what it represents. She also cherishes her familial heritage, refusing to allow her mother to change her surname to her's. She regards the stories of my family as more personal mythology than real, but as she is beginning to learn of some of her ancestors in History class, it is taking on a new dimension for her.

When I was her age the practice of memorizing 13 generations on both sides of the family when one prepares to Come of Age was something that I personally despised and found burdensome. As my daughter is preparing for her's she is of the same sentiment. However, I found as I got older that this was a useful thing, as it does give one a psychological connection to the legacy of their family's past.

The pro tempore role of Chronicler was a burden. Carting around boxloads of documents, family trees, historical photos and etchings all these years while keeping them carefully preserved for future generations has been cumbersome. I have had the skills to allow me to digitize them, along with having studied Paleography and Archaeology I have had the ability to better research much of it and put a good part of it into historical context better. It was certainly an additional project in my life that I could have done without, but it has made the legacy far more personal for me though.

The responsibility of upholding that legacy seems far more natural than one would think, however. Holding firm to those ideals and living that way isn't something that one must try to do, it becomes who you are and how you are defined, to where doing it becomes as natural as breathing.

When I was growing up I was boggled when strangers would call my father in the middle of the night to mediate a dispute between two Vietnamese families. At first I thought it was because my father spoke Vietnamese, but when two Greek families asked my father to mediate a dispute over which family was financially responsible for what in a wedding, I began to understand that it was something beyond his language skills. Wherever we would go people would seek my father's advice. What I mistook as charisma I eventually learned was a respect and reverence people had for his advice and opinions, and even more so was their willingness to accept his advice and follow it.

It wasn't until I got older, after my daughter was born, and I started accumulating a "Teenage Fan Club" did I begin to understand. Although I had considered myself to not have even a fraction of the charisma my father had, nor have I been a very social person, as I helped people around me I began to gather a flock of people around me seeking my help and advice until the point that the flow of people coming to me to ask for solutions to their problems seemed to never end. Through word of mouth just my name alone garners the trust of people in my community. It was then that I began to realize that it had nothing to do with charisma, but with something within my being that resonated within others and shone through even though I, nor no one around me, could see it.

Although there have been times I've had to go "turtle" and become a hermit for a short while to regain my direction and reset my personal boundaries, or to keep from getting more involved in helping others at the expense of my own sanity, I have never considered being something other than what I am.

And that is the crux of it I suppose. Some family legacies are something to which it is expected that you serve and are obligated to fulfill, which understandably is something that one might rebel against. However, some family legacies are something beyond that, the fulfillment of which is not something you must do, but is defined by who you are, the fulfillment of it being the fulfillment of who one is by their nature. In such cases, to rebel against it would be to rebel against everything that makes you who you are, everything that you know, everything that you feel.

It is beginning to seem daunting and burdensome now that I have ensured the continuance of the family line and have almost passed on the legacy to the next generation because now I am faced with the freedom and obligation of fulfilling my familial legacy not just in the every day deeds that I do for those whom I meet, or when the occasion arises, but in actively pursuing it out of Civic Duty to my fellow man. Not everyone in my family line has done such in taking their responsibility beyond their immediate environment, but the great names in my family line certainly have. However, the majority of that burden comes from lack of immediate direction. When the opportunity arises, of course I can rise to the occasion, but seeking out such when there is no immediate calling is another thing altogether and is far heavier a weight to bear.

When I see my daughter interact with others I know that I have fulfilled my obligation, and anything else is "extra credit". Even still being a youth, she has exceeded my own example, and even my own father's in being a benefactor of Justice to friend and stranger alike. She is far more outspoken than I and will speak out against injustices she sees even when I shut my mouth to avoid a scene or to keep from causing trouble. Whenever she sees someone distraught or in pain she will approach them to ask them point blank "What is wrong? Is there anything I can do to help?" and not to be so easily dismissed because of her age to follow through on her offer. She rallies children at school behind causes and comes home every weekend with a long agenda she wishes help with accomplishing, from writing letters to Administrators, Officials, Senators, to helping find ways to solve other people's problems that she doesn't know how to resolve. Her selfless dedication and devotion to others makes me proud, and even though it puts my own deeds thus far to shame, it reassures me that I have done good thus far, and in her example find even more resolution to continue on, taking on an even greater role than I have to date.