Family Planning

I want this because I have only seen one photo of my father's father, blurry and cracked, and the record stops there. Whatever Irish life we led, it's a secret before the last two generations. I'm doing this because I will be dead and ash in the soil, with no soul in heaven. What voice does a fertilizing mass of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen possess?

I charge my anticipated children: every year, I will write down twenty truthful pages about my life. I will present a collected copy to each of you when you are twenty-one. Then you do the same, and hand it to your own children, with the same charge. In this way we will be a family.

Our narrative will travel hundreds of years--through wars, prisons, divorces, and through progress and pleasure. I can't assure your prosperity or happiness, but you will be able to read the words from which you came. You will see the progress of your voice.

Write our story. And volunteer for charity work, and help your parents in the kitchen.

Paul Ford (Great-great-great-great-great-great-great Grandfather)

June 23, 1998