History Meets Ancestry

To most, history is a story told and

nothing more. I like the one about

Michelangelo lofted high on a

scaffold on his back painting the

ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Books

and teachers have told that one for

centuries.

I am partial to stories about artists.

And although I am as well, no one

has told those kinds of tales about

me. Besides, I am afraid of heights,

you know.

I could go on and on, but time is

too limited here to discuss the entire

panoply covering the scope of human

history. However, I do feel compelled

to mention Alexander the Great.

He was a Macedonian king and fierce

warrior whose conquests covered

most of the known world at the time.

Macedon was a region of ancient

Greece. I bring up that relic of his-

tory because Greek is a part of my

ancestry.

And although I too served in the mili-

tary, I don’t consider myself a warrior.

As far as I know, there is not one ounce

of royal blood in the long and question-

able history of my family.

I can say with a good deal of certainty

that modern day Greeks as well as gen-

erations past generally like lots of garlic,

and have a proclivity to dance.

Personally, I tend to lean towards the

horse trader rather than king and

warrior type. Not having made the

chronicling of either fact or fable,

the precise lineage of my family

history is not all that clear to me.

As for the artistic traits in me having

come from Michelangelo, I have no

Florentine blood in me. Even so, for
most of us who have survived, a good
deal of history still remains a mystery,

you know.

                          -30-

Chris Hanch 1-19-2020