Comments on: Lewis, Son Of Lewis

By: Hg

Hg — Tue, 13 May 2008 20:43:41 +0000

Beth – thanks. I was intending to use one of the tombstones in the graveyard, but it seemed a little out of keeping with the spirit of the piece. Then I realised that the “same but different” theme of the horseshoes was a great metaphor for relatives.
Clare – funny, I said something very similar to the organiser, Jean, when I was thanking her at the end of the day. Think about the generations down the line researching us. Will they have these funny blog things to refer back to, to understand us better?
I like the time travel game too. I remember sitting at the breakfast table as a kid, probably around ten years old, trying to work out how old I’d be when the impossibly distant and magical year 2000 came around. And now, 2000 seems a long time ago and very mundane.
A little bird tells me that this post of mine might also have caused ripples elsewhere.

By: clare

clare — Tue, 13 May 2008 18:00:36 +0000

I'm afraid I don't know how to do the trackback thing, so I'll just tell you: Your post has inspired a new one over at Boob Pencil.

By: clare

clare — Tue, 13 May 2008 17:45:55 +0000

It is indeed fascinating to think of all those generations of blood, stretching back into the past to incomprehensible times, and yet having some kind of connection with yourself.
But I always think it gets particularly engrossing / meaningful when you turn it on its head and htink of it the other way around. Six generations from now, there will (maybe, probably) be lartge numbers of people who can trace their family tree back to me and my kids. Their lives would almost certainly be incomprehensible to me, and yet in some sense they will have come from me. The thing about this which always gives me a bit of a jolt, is that I think of myself as living in modern times. When I imagine those ancestors of mine, and how confused they might be by my life and experience, there’s a slight patronising edge to my thoughts. Poor unsophisticated old-fasioned folk, bamboozled by modern times.
Somehow I imagine them living in sepia landscapes, where nothing was as colourful as it is now. But of course it was. They thought of themselves as modern. They probably teased their older generations, took advantage of their slownesss. And they saw things around them as bright and new, not faded and old.
Time travel is one of those unobtainable things, but oh how I would love it if it were possible. Both forwards and backwards, near and far, to visit ourselves and our relatives, as well as strangers. I used to fantasise about a 31-yr-old future self turning up on the doorstep when I was 16, and wonder whether I would recognise myself or not.
Funny old thing, time.

By: beth

beth — Mon, 05 May 2008 13:43:46 +0000

This is totally fascinating; looking forward to further discoveries. And I really like the photograph too.