Rebecca Lynn O'Bryan
I am not an Obrien. I don't even know if Obrien's exist. It's O'Bryan, with an apostrophe (even though no computer system has yet been successful in recording it), capital B and a y. The y means we were knighted (although I'm not sure by whom, or if that's true). We're related to royalty. England's infamous Prince John, although you probably remember him as portrayed in Disney's "Robin Hood" as the thumb-sucking cowardly younger brother to King Richard the Lionheart. John O'Bryan was my first ancestor from Ireland to migrate to America in 1705. He arrived in Virginia, but a few generations later his clan paved the way into Kentucky. And then... just kind of got stuck there. My great great something grandmother was the first woman teacher in Kentucky and my fore fathers have served in every American war (including the Revolutionary war).
But I suppose that is all just a background. Because in a few months, I wont even be an O'Bryan. I will be a Pipkin. And no one really knows where the Pipkin clan originated. My soon-to-be mother-in-law is a genealogist and even after all of her research and combing of the databases she hasn't been able to conclude anything more than "probably from Europe... or Russia". I could have told you the same, using deductive reasoning and the light color of their skin, there are few other options for their origin.
And that is about the extent of what I know of the past.
I would have to say that I am far more literate in the digital world than I am the past. I know that in order for digital communication to continue and to progress there is a great deal of participation that is required. Computers would be as noticed as furnaces if we didn't actively get on them and participate in the world wide conversation. Facebook would be just another code of unintelligible words and letters and would be lost to civilization.
In fact, the biggest difference between the 16th and 15th centuries was the great participation by everyone. Racked by plagues, civil dis-arrest, and general societal upheaval, Europe was in a great dark age in the 15th century. What had once been a thriving civilization with technological advances had been changed almost overnight. Because of the lack of people willing and able to participate, governments had collapsed, great work projects crumbled, and chaos ensued. The birth of the renaissance was all about participation. As Gutenberg developed his printing press it allowed for even the general citizens to understand, learn, and participate. No longer was the oppression of ignorance all controlling.
Recently I watched a movie called "The Book of Eli". (I use the term "watched" in the loosest of terms. It would be more accurate to say "recently, my fiancee and I visited his friends who happened to be watching this movie and due to the massive amounts of violence and creepiness I spent the majority of the evening with my head buried in my fiancee's shoulder").
SpOiLeR AlErT: This is a post-armagedan film where the world is left mostly in ruins of a huge battle/epidemic/I'm not really sure because I missed the first half hour. In the movie the man named Eli has a book that he carries with him everywhere. This book is the Bible. One of the last remaining copies. All these evil men chase him down to try and capture the book and in the end he is able to escape into this community where they are salvaging all the ruins of their previous society in an attempt to bring about an enlightenment.
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