We Are The Future Ancestors
I was training at Fort Huachuca, the home base of the famous Buffalo Soldiers, and only 15 miles north of the Mexican border. It’s close to the famous towns of Tombstone and Bisbee. On my way back to Phoenix I impulsively took a little side trip to check out the home of the Shootout at the OK Corral.
I took a few of the historic tours. Most memorable – The Birdcage Theater and Six Gun Restaurant, where they re-enacted some famous gunfights. As I walked along the boardwalk, the beat of my cowboy boots echoed down the empty street with each step. I could imagine what it was like 120 years ago when the silver mine was active and the Wild West was alive and kickin’. In the Birdcage Theatre, you can see an intact building with original furniture and fixtures. This is not a restoration – it’s the real deal. Same furniture, fixtures, decks of cards left behind… Definitely worth going again and staying for a couple of days.
When I arrived home, it was time to visit my favorite haunt for dinner and dancing, HandleBar J’s. It’s not a bar in the strictest sense, it’s more of a “Cowboy Cheers” – where everyone knows your name. It has a great band, The Herndon Brothers, and good food at reasonable prices. Best of all is the Old West ambiance: cowboy hats and boots tacked to the ceiling. It’s open air on one side with a big patio. In the winter, small fire pits and heaters keep it warm enough to be in or out. Indoors the picnic tables are near the dance floor – and you get a floor show from the regular dancers and the fabulous band every night. It’s a warm and welcoming place.
As I watched the activity, I imagined 120 years from now what visitors to this site might think. What if this place were preserved just like it is tonight? What if visitors in 2129 tried to make sense of the hats on the ceiling, the carved names in the bar? Like those patrons of The Birdcage Theater, we’re just living our lives and enjoying our friends.
It is an interesting journey, though, to imagine what will be said about this small chunk of time when we’ve all passed on. We see ourselves as living full lives: romances and tragedies, exciting days and boring ones, worries and miracles. But when we read about the ancestors, we usually read one or two lines in a book and that’s it. Whole lives reduced to a paragraph. A decade in a chapter.
So, what will your story be? When people look back on your life, what will they say? How did you influence the lives around you? How did you add value to the planet? What did you leave behind? You can start creating a life worth remembering any time. Today is a good day to start. Write out what you WANT them to remember and say about you. Then live into it. (That’s a great way to write your New Year’s Resolutions, too, by the way.)
Here’s to being memorable,
Beth
© 2009 Beth Terry Seminars, Inc.
Good thoughts for the new year. Thanks, Beth.