Tree of Life



Tree of Life from
http://www.betsytruedesigns.com/gallery.htm


This I liked very much.  The New York Times on-line has a page called Mixed America's Family Tree where Americans can construct a simple but elegant family tree complete with photos.  The design is lovely (a tree with colored leaves representing different national origins) and the site developers have made it child's play to use.  Hundreds of people have already submitted their family information.  Have a look.  There is no better way to see how mixed a country of immigration becomes after a few generations.

There was a time in my country's history when openness about one's mixed origins was rarer.  I distinctly remember my paternal grandmother talking about some of my ancestors with the air of someone divulging a closely held, not to be repeated outside the family, secret.  Now we have people, clearly proud of the diversity of their family tree, posting their genealogies on a website for all the world to see.  

Times have changed.  Today we can openly honor our ancestors and celebrate the diversity of the present generation.  This is the progress we have made and this, I believe, is how we will feed our dreams for the future.

There is no past, no present nor future. The present of the past is the memory. The present of the present is action. The present of the future is imagination.
Saint Augustin (354-430)
 From Jean-Jacques Auffret's "Quote of the Day"