Photo by Susanne Jutzeler, suju-foto
Decades ago, families were massed by land. It’s what defines their lineage and separates them from another. To identify yourself as part of a family, you must live closely with each other and fight with them to preserve ownership of this land. This shows how easy it was for people to experience belongingness and exhibit their identities as families.
However, with the changing time and the world’s structure, families can now be spread out in every corner of the world. Living in the same land doesn’t guarantee that people share the same ancestry or follow the same traditions. While numerous other factors measure belongingness, these can’t ensure the experience of fitting in similarly to how it feels with family.
Hence, when land alone doesn’t define your identity, how do people recognize their lineage?
The Importance of Recognizing Heritage
By its definition, heritage is what makes up a person’s identity. It’s the set of beliefs and traditions that a specific group of people, particularly a family, practice, which have been passed down from one generation to another. Heritage differs from family to family. It holds the uniqueness in family, a particular characteristic that can’t be found or felt in another. Some may share similar traditions, but no two families are alike because of these practices.
From the moment an individual is born, they naturally assume their family’s heritage and exhibit them through knowledge of their shared culture, religion, history, and general way of life. In short, heritage is what makes an individual different from the rest. Sure, their environment may, to a certain extent, influence their personality. But their family’s heritage primarily molds them into the person they are, influencing how they perceive life and the choices they make throughout.
However, at a time when the internet blurs one’s identity from another and oversharing personal stories makes it easy for one to assume another’s identity, how do people conserve their uniqueness?
A Story of Preserving Familial Heritage
With the caption, “Dinner with papaw tonight. He made 12 burgers for all six grandkids, and I’m the only one who showed,” countless hearts were tugged at the photo of a saddened grandfather, Kenny Harmon, who’s now more popularly known as “Sad Papaw.” Thanks to the popularity of this tweet, Kenny Harmon gained the strength to write more and introduce himself to his curious audience through his book, Sad Papaw: The Early Years.
Following the success of this book, Kenny Harmon wrote more to expand on the internet meme. Sad Papaw’s Heritage, the sequel to the previously mentioned publication, digs deeper into Kenny’s life and the Harmon family. While the first book emphasizes how people must treasure their grandparents, this book shines the spotlight on valuing family identity and heritage. Kenny shares how his lineage was influenced by their time’s economies, politics, and societies. Though changing from time to time, they still managed to grow closer as a family.
If there’s one valuable lesson readers can get from Kenny Harmon’s Sad Papaw Heritage, it’s the preservation of one’s heritage and its importance in strengthening connections within families.
This preservation and protection of one’s heritage don’t necessarily mean going back decades into the family tree and getting to know one’s ancestry. Instead, it’s all about preserving memories and stories, so they reach the next generations. Fortunately, technology does wonder about making this goal a lot easier.
Take Photos Whenever Possible
There’s no better way to safeguard memories and stories than taking photos of when they happen. Though future generations won’t exactly experience these events, flipping through photos offers an entirely different experience. It’s fun to look at old photos and learn other practices and how older people dressed back in their days. Photos provide a fun way of reliving memories.
Write About Family Practices
Taking photos is one way of documenting family events, and writing is another. While photos capture bits and pieces of what happened, writing them can give future readers a more thorough narrative of these experiences. This can be done online or through physical journals, where people manually write about these events. Physical journals may age through time, which makes this material so intimate and personal. If they survive the test of time, it shows what they’ve gone through.
Display Precious Objects
Another means of documenting different events is through keeping memorabilia that reflect or remind people of the experience. From trophies or shells collected at the beach, these little objects can carry stories of how families spend time together – a simple way of keeping memories alive.
