The birth of the first of the next generation in my family this week – our great niece – got me thinking. I think of a friend who said of herself “I don’t think I’d be a good mother, but I’m a wonderful aunt.” I think of my own great-aunts and great-uncles. My paternal grandmother’s sister, who was a lovely, gentle, elegant woman, and a sweet reminder of my own grandmother after her early death. My paternal grandfather’s sister, who I didn’t meet until his 75th birthday (families are complicated!), but whose correspondence with him as they rediscovered each other was a treasure. My maternal grandfather’s brother and his wife, and her siblings, who lived very differently from anyone else I knew, but always gave me a sense of ‘rootedness" when I visited their small town. (I remember my shock – and youthful disillusionment – when I realized this “plain” lady made her cakes using cake mixes!)

The world they lived in, and the world my new great niece is coming into, are so different from each other. I think about my high hopes that we can make her world a better place, in part through sharing a set of ideas which were well-known at roughly the time my great-aunts and uncles were born (1885-1905), and are today relatively unknown, but no less important and full of potential for good – the common good.

5 generations.

And we are reminded, as we plan, to think about the seventh generation. What are the effects of our actions on those who will follow us? What do we owe them? And of course, what do we owe each other?