Blowing off the Dust

When I saw this picture in a viral PowerPoint going around the email universe, it was love at first sight. Perhaps that's partly because I just returned from a couple of weeks of studying colonial New England history and it came alive for me in ways I'd never expected. My world became larger when I “blew off the dust” from pages of history I'd never explored.

In this picture I also see the potential for my own volumes of writing to be stored away on a shelf (physical or virtual) for decades — maybe a century or longer. This picture gives me hope that at some point, someone will blow the dust off those words and they will enrich the future just as olden stories enrich my life today.

Who knows? I write primarily for my own enjoyment and edification, and then for the enlightenment and entertainment of family. Should future generations derive unexpected value, so much the better!

Write now: explore some old pages. If you are fortunate enough to have family history documents, take a look at those. Pull out old letters. If you don't have such documents at home, check out biographies or historical accounts of bygone days and listen closely to the messages those old words hold for you today. Write an essay or story about your reaction.

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