An Immigrant's Tale

June 14, 2011 by John Fea

Continued from Page 1

Listening to my grandfather talk, and processing the entire interview experience on my ride back to Harrisburg, I could not help but think about my own life. While I certainly hope that I am able to act in history to shape my destiny in the way that my grandfather did, I also realized that, at another level, my life is not my own. If the life of my grandfather has taught me one thing, it is that I am a product, to quote Karl Marx, of "the circumstances directly encountered, given, and transmitted from the past." This means that much of my life has been shaped by the decisions of those, like my grandfather, who went before me. As a Christian, I am reminded that I have been created with free-will, but at the same time my life has been ordered by a sovereign God. I will let the theologians sort that one out.

As I tell my students, the practice of conducting oral history reminds us that we are part of a human story that is much larger than our present moment in time. So go grab a tape or digital recorder and start talking to the ones you love.

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