Jacob Donner had courage and tenacity. What he didn't have was good information.
I was thinking about Donner and the eighty-plus folks that he lead into the mountains back in 1846 because we were planning a trip through the mountains in what might be bad weather. Granted, it was not the Sierras. And granted there were just two of us and Shakespeare the Bassett but winter weather in the mountains was still something to get my attention.
This year there was a winter storm sweeping up from the southwest carrying lots and lots of precipitation and driving temperatures down, down, down. We knew this because of the Weather Channel.
The Weather Channel went on the air for the first time back in 1982 and most folks thought it would fail. After all who would want to sit and watch the weather? The answer, as it turned out, was a whole lot of people, including me and the Most Beautiful Woman in the World.
We monitored the progress of this storm on TV and went to the Web for more information. The site gave us reports on the route we would travel. We decided it would be smart to leave a day early or the storm might catch us in the mountains.
Before we left we checked out pet-friendly hotels on the Web and found several that might be good places to stop. Once we were in the car we called the hotels on a cell phone.
We called other folks too. We called friends to tell them that we wouldn't be stopping on our way to Ohio because we needed to keep moving to beat the storm. We took a call from Joanna, daughter of the Most Beautiful Woman in the World, with a request for us to swing by her dorm at college to check out the Christmas decorations.
Her college is right along our route and we knew the stop wouldn't take long. We called her again from a fast food place in the town where she goes to school. That way we arrived at the dorm bearing gifts of food.
Since Joanna was working on a paper, we also fielded a request for her mom to review it after we got to our hotel. Joanna sent the paper as an email attachment and good ole mom reviewed it at the end of a long, tiring day. The paper went back to Joanna by email.
The next day the Weather Channel and the Net gave us the scoop on the weather. Our cell phones helped us stay in touch and let folks in Ohio know when we would be arriving. It was all amazingly high tech.
Ohio was filled with family and friends. There was a birthday dinner for the Most Beautiful Woman in the World. She had a long, long, long lunch with friends dating back to high school. We had long chats that included phrases like, "Do you remember …" and "Whatever happened to …"
On Sunday we went to church with the grandmother of The Most Beautiful Woman in the World. We all call her "Gram."
Gram is almost ninety-six. She is, arguably, the best cook in the world. And she has been a member of Central College Presbyterian Church since there were less than one hundred members and the Rev. Dr. Richard Ellsworth was the pastor.
Dr. Ellsworth is still the pastor and Central College now has over three thousand members. By the time we'd been on the Church grounds for a few minutes I was willing to swear that every one of them knew Gram.
Person after person came up to give her a hug and to chat awhile. They were introduced to us and told us how wonderful Gram was. Each one had a little story to tell. These are some of the people who helped Gram hold life together when her husband died.
It's been a few years now, but Gram still tears up whenever she mentions the man she lived with for all those years. We sat at Gram's as she told us story after story about him and how good he was, how well he treated her.
Each story seemed to connect to another one, chained together simply by memories.
A story about how her Uncle Dave built some of the early houses in Reynoldsburg, Ohio, led back to stories about Gram's father. He was a Methodist Minister. He must have been a remarkable man because Gram's memories of him are so strong, even though he died when she was only seven.
That story led us forward to stories about her growing up and the life her mother had. It led us backward to stories about her father's father, a rather tall man, who came to the US from Germany and whose tiny wife could walk under his outstretched arm without ducking.
The stories ranged across generations and geography and when we left Gram's we carried away memories of generations and places we could never see.
Every age has its false gods, the things we bow down to when we should be putting time and effort into things that matter. Information and instant communication are among the false gods of our time.
We pile up the data and information, hoping that if we pile them high enough they'll magically become knowledge and wisdom. We brag about being connected, without worrying about whether we're sharing anything worthwhile.
Sunday afternoon great love and wisdom passed between us. There was no technology to be seen. Instead there was a wonderful old woman with twinkling eyes who told story after story, pouring life from her heart into ours.
Today we head home. I've checked the weather on TV and on the Web. We'll have our cell phones. All of that is information technology that would have amazed Jacob Donner. It is technology that will help us stay safe. But it's not the most important thing.
During our trip home The Most Beautiful Woman in the World and I will talk a lot. We will share stories and insight and opinion. And, many times, I'm sure, we'll drift back in conversation to a winter Sunday afternoon with sun streaming in the windows and Gram telling us stories of her life.
Created/Revised/Reviewed: 9 December 2002
