Ignorance and Apathy

As the story goes, a teacher once asked a student, "What is the difference between ignorance and apathy?" The student answered, "I don't know and I don't care."

Pearl S. Buck was a prolific writer who won both the Pulitizer and Nobel prizes for her books. Yesterday I read this excerpt from her book Fighting Angel, which is the biography of her father, Absalom Sydenstricker.

"I do not know the old and precise history of his [her father's] family, and I have not asked because it does not matter. Some time before the American Revolution they came from somewhere in Germany, for the sake of religious freedom. I do not know just when except that I know it was in time for one of his ancestors to be a courier to George Washington, and for two others to fight loyally under Washington's command. I say it does not matter because it is not as an individual that he is significant. If his life has any meaning for others than himself it is as a manifestation of a certain spirit in his country and his time. For he was a spirit, and a spirit made by that blind certainty, that pure intolerance, that zeal for mission, that contempt of man and earth, that high confidence in heaven, which our forefathers bequeathed to us."---Pearl S. Buck, Fighting Angel, p12-13

Prize-winning author or not, that reeks of ignorance and apathy! The book further reveals her ignorance when she says her paternal grandmother's name was Deborah when, in fact, her name was Frances Coffman. If Pearl Buck did not even know her paternal grandmother's correct name, I'm sure she did not know the Coffmans were Mennonites.

For the record, Frances Coffman was the daughter of John and Catherine Susanna (Good) Coffman. Catherine was born in Lancaster County, PA, but grew up in Rockingham County, VA. She was the youngest child of Jacob Good II, grandson of 1727 immigrant Peter Good.

The history of Pearl Buck's father's family DID matter and made a great difference in who she was. Her life would have been quite different if her Mennonite ancestors had stayed in Germany. Her father's life DID have meaning to others than himself. The choices he made in his lifetime made a signifigant difference in her own life and writing. If he had not been a missionary in China, she would never have written her prize-winning books about China.

Whether we know it or not, we are products of our past. All those who came before us played a part in making us who we are. How can you know who you are if you don't know where you came from? By the same token, the choices we make in our lives play a part in the lives of those who follow us.

We walk the path of the ancient ones,
soon the shadows of our footprints the dream ones will walk.
Will our footprints be deep enough to follow
or will the winds erase them for all time?

Joel 1:3 - Tell it to your children, and let your children tell it to their children, and their children to the next generation. (NIV)