Dogs, History and a German Immigrant
Our quirky dogs create a lot of activity in our house. Whether it’s pulling things out of the puppy’s mouth or treating an ongoing ear infection, we’re always dealing with something involving them. I researched how to help with allergic-type licking and found much about pet probiotics. Knowing enough about gut health to understand A LOT goes on in there, I decided to give them some Greek yogurt vs specialty product with similar strains of bacteria. And voila! The itching subsided significantly.
I remembered how my mom always leans toward natural remedies. She makes her own yogurt from raw milk, organic milk powder, heating pads and towels. Of course when I was young, I held no regard for anything homemade. I disrespected all things natural, and was frankly a little embarrassed that my mom was so creative and willing to experiment with home grown foods. She was so ahead of her time.
She also makes the most amazing sourdough breads and rolls. Again, experimenting with recipes and temperatures and starters and rising heights (if only people knew to ask her during 2020 about how to make the best rounds of bread!). She is also a robust composter. She has always gardened and fertilized all things green with great nutrients from our kitchen. And again, I was mortified as a teenager that we didn’t just throw everything away, but instead actually up-cycled what we could.
I was retelling all these things over breakfast on Memorial Day. I was bragging about how smart it was to try yogurt with the dogs, and how I wondered if the pantry temperature would be high enough to make sourdough starter and how coffee grounds and egg shells would make our plants flower better. As though the scales were removed from my eyes, I saw all the things that I grew up with, and was ashamed of, are the perfect solutions for exactly what I needed today. As the words were leaving my mouth, I realized I’m becoming my mother! Hopefully, I’m mature enough to appreciate that or maybe it’s just in my DNA and I would have started composting someday. But probably more true, I recognized that many of the incredible truths I learned came through the lessons taught me at home.
I am blessed to have parents who invested in me and taught me history (again, against my teenager angst). We read the Declaration of Independence every July 4 and the Gettysburg Address on Memorial Day. My dad was a German immigrant who loved America, and especially the golden waves of grain in eastern Colorado, where I grew up. My mom is an historian. She traveled in Europe and Russia, but mostly loves connecting the dots of liberty and freedom for college kids (and anyone else who would listen). My sister is also a history professor and schools me steadily on political science and western civilization.
Without these memories from my family, I would have little breadth to read the world of today. I’d be unable to discern with as much clarity. I wouldn’t understand why a young German boy would love this land of the free so intensely. I certainly wouldn’t have appreciated my dad’s life story of coming alone to America at 14 with no money and no help and learn to be a father and successful business owner. I wouldn’t understand the struggle of language or loneliness and loss. And I wouldn’t understand how important the sacrifices our soldiers have made for all us to live in America, where we really can make the most of the opportunities in front of us. Without the story telling and teaching, I wouldn’t know about compost and yogurt bacteria and the intricacies of sourdough.😉
Even though Memorial Day has passed us, I hope we all continue to be more acutely aware of how our past can teach us in the present tense. And if I’m any example, what we once thought was boring or embarrassing, outdated and even useless, will become the things that we cherish the most and weave into the fibers of our lives.
