Regardless of how little you came from materially it is an insult to the generations of your ancestors to say that you came from nothing.
For you to be here generation upon generation of people that looked something like you fought,starved,struggled,died, and overcame for your existence.
Our “modern” society would have us shit on our roots, live unnaturally, and isolated, weakly bonded to the ancestors and family nearest us, and have us completely forgetful of the more distant ones.
Take a minute and look at yourself in the mirror. Look at yourself and see in that face of yours others. See the look in their eyes. You’re in America right? That likely means that within the last 200 years or so someone like you made it across the Atlantic dirt poor, and today here you are.
My grandmother was put in an orphanage for a few years as her family couldn’t feed her and some of her siblings. (About half the siblings spent around 3 years in the orphanage before being taken back into the family home, in slightly better times. This was still far rougher than we have it.)
My grandfather spent his entire days outside the house to keep safe from his evil stepmother.
I’ve seen my father work blue collar, long hours, low pay, and bad weather for decades and still struggle.
I’ve seen my mother sick, I know she and I were near death in my childbirth. The advised “safe” option to abort was not taken.
And here I am! Thank god.
“Honor thy father and mother for it is good” I’d been looking at the verse wrong. Thinking about the stupid decisions they have made, looked at the degenerate television they choose to live in front of, and not looked at…the sacrifice.
This is how you honor your father and mother, how you honor your ancestors: You look to the hardship they have went through for you, and live!
Do you want to let them down? Waste not only your life, but their sacrifices? You damn sure better not. Inside of you should be a feverish drive to honor those sacrifices, and this feeling, the feeling of needing to do it proud , they’ve attempted to engineer this power out of you.
If this fire is not strong inside of your heart, GET IT FUCKING BACK!
-J