Book Quote & History

Being the historian, I enjoyed this quote while reading The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane. Two characters are doing some research within the archives and fall upon a name and one discuss the following thoughts going through his mind:

"That you can this whole entire life, with all your opinions, your loves, your fears. Eventually those parts of you disappear. And then the people who could remember those parts of you disappear, and before long all that's left is your name on some ledger. This Mary person - she had a favorite food. She had friends and people she disliked. We don't even know how she died."

That's the weird part of studying history or doing historical research. You run across numerous names and have a brief document of someone's existence. You try to imagine who they were as a person. As you peruse the other documents, you begin to realize that there were towns, states and countries with such people.

Then you have to wonder why God offered you this gift of life.