I come from a long line of scumbags and the tales reflect it.
There is a story where my two very rough great uncles would target practice with each other's shirt buttons. Cute.
One where a great great relative was shot because he was so very racist. Much less cute.
And this one... the one about my peg leg grandpa.
Back when Kansas City had its earliest trolley system, my great great grandpa and grandma lived and did life. Grandpa had a drinking problem and regularly came home wasted. Grandma hated it. One night he didn't come home. He had passed out on the trolley tracks, completely sloshed. And that is how Grandpa Peg Leg became, well, Grandpa Peg Leg. (I still have no idea what his real name is).
Unfazed by his catastrophic, appendage altering accident 'ol Peg Leg still loved to get completely smashed at the local bar.
Whenever he would get all itchy for a night out drinking, my grandma, (should I call her Grandma Peg Leg? ) would take matters in her own hands and scuttle off to hide his leg. That is how Grandpa, night after night lost his leg.
My family history is seedier than one of those annoyingly seedy watermelon slices, the kind that are more work than reward to eat. Thanks be to God I don't carry the burden of my ancestor's sin or even the weight of my own sin! I have a brand new identity in Christ.
Before you or I get carried away worrying about whether we are making meaningful life choices... or get jammed in an existential gridlock.... let's remember the now cliche line from C.T. Studd "Only one life, 'twill soon be past. Only what's done for Christ, will last."
Studd is more right than Queen who famously crooned "nothing really matters" but let's be honest here... nope... now I'm distracted by "Bohemian Rhapsody" playing in the background of my head.
You and I both know, our great-great grand-kids probably won't even remember us ... unless of course we somehow lose a leg to Kansas City's new trolley.
Worth Noting:
Details remaining as to how this guy is actually related to me are a bit fuzzy. My dad was the teller of these stories when I was a kid and he has since passed. So perhaps "Peg Leg" was an uncle or maybe I should add an extra "great" to his grandfather title. Regardless, he is somehow related to me and now he lives eternally on the internet.
Galileo, Galileo