Who Got Us Here?

Explorers got us here

Inventors, writers, poets too.

Kings, queens, warriors and

madmen played their parts.

Let us not forget the scientists

and philosophers, the artists

composers and musicians.

Saints and sinners paved

all the way to this day.

I could go on and on with

this litany, adding the names

of specific men and women

who did and did not do

the dastardly and amazing

feats throughout mankind’s

illustrious history who put

us in this place and time in

which we reside today. Think

of the mothers and fathers who

gave us life in the first place.

Think of the rich and famous

the unknown and uncelebrated

likes of you and me. Several

years ago,I basked on a sunny

beach in Australia wondering

what got me halfway around

the world from where I came.

I was amazed and overwhelmed

by it all, and could only go back

a generation or two. But I was

struck with the thought that

somewhere way back when,

Alexander the Great and Napo-

leon Bonaparte and many years

later, some unrecognized nobody

from Pulaski Boulevard in

Chicago somehow played a part.

We did not get here alone and on

our own, you know.

                      -30-

Chris Hanch 9-4-2022