Coffee with Carrie: Considering those that came before

Coffee with Carrie: Considering those that came before

(EDITOR’S NOTE: Coffee with Carrie is written by Carrie Gloeckner, publisher and journalist at the Meigs Independent Press. This new column is meant to be a way to start your week off with some thoughts about the community, community interest bits and just positive thoughts to start the work week off. Hopefully you can find it interesting, entertaining and maybe even insightful.)

As Meigs County prepares to celebrate 200 as a county, my thoughts have been on the past and those that came before us. In my family, there was always a sense of the importance to remember those that came before. Genealogy is something I have been interested in since fourth grade (which was especially sparked by a trip to the Meigs Museum for Yesteryear, but that is another story). It was long an interest of my father’s and became something we could do together. At that time, you couldn’t click a leaf or look something up on the internet, you had to dig for it through old records. Research has always been something that I like to do and those days were always fun to come across a newspaper article or obituary giving little details about an ancestor. Those things led to my journalism career and eventually the Meigs Independent Press.

But my thoughts have been much deeper as of late. This coming weekend we will have parade, Civil War encampment at the Meigs County Fairgrounds, a battle, a ball and more. Through all that hoopla it is easy to allow things to slip by without a thought. While we celebrate (and we should celebrate this milestone), we should take a moment to consider those previous generations. Those that came to what would be known as Meigs County when it was a wilderness, from indigenous people to settlers looking for their own land, they came through the years. They would carve out a place of their own, make their mark. Eventually more people would come and form communities and our little corner of the world would take shape. All of them had hopes, dreams, fears, obstacles, illnesses, the whims of nature from storms to drought and the ever present possibility of flooding from the Ohio River. They kept going. They kept growing the community from one generation to the next.

I keep looking through the family tree and I can not fully imagine the strife my ancestors overcame. Even from wars and loss, their resilience has endured from generation to generation. There have been moments in my life that have been incredibly difficult. During those times my faith has sustained me. My loved ones have sustained me. My ancestors have sustained me because I consider that if they could continue in the face of tribulation, then so can I. I owe it to them to push on, to keep up the good fight.

This week as we celebrate, as the governor leads our parade and reenactors portray the past, take a moment to contemplate those that came before. Consider the names on the Civil War Memorial by the Meigs County Courthouse and other monuments throughout the county. Consider the men and women that were not memorialized in the history books, but simply worked everyday to take care of their families and quietly contribute in their churches, their communities and their schools. Consider those that are doing that right now, today. The ones that quietly make your life richer in some way and perhaps how you can make someone’s life richer too. We have much to be proud of here – despite what those that feel otherwise may say. Consider that we are all in this together and the best thing we can do is simply remember to “love our neighbor” and keep working toward a better us, a better family, a better village, a better county and so on. It all starts though with being a better me, with being a better you. We all have our struggles just like our ancestors did. We can make it through today, tomorrow and keep forging ahead.

May you have a blessed week and truly enjoy celebrating the county’s 200 anniversary.

Just few thoughts over coffee, come back and we’ll have another cup next week