Review: Our Roots Remain as One

Our Roots Remain as One by David G Muller, Jr, Deborah Muller Kemp, Kristina Muller Wells, Janice Muller Hollinger

The value of family histories and recollections is that they show us just how much the world has changed within living memory. The memories of the Mullers from the 1950s and 60s (as well as later) give an honest picture of life through the eyes of four siblings (one boy, three girls).

Organising four family members to take the time to write down their recollections is a serious challenge, and the fact that the four Muller children, now nearly all at retirement age, have been able to do this is a major accomplishment.

The format is elegantly simple. Each of the four wrote short pieces on key stages of their lives: earliest memories, various stages of school, lives outside school, college years, and making life decisions. Through those brief essays, history and growth are recorded. Sections where they give accounts of the same events of their youth are particularly interesting.

The book is a reminder of the value of individual families and lives, and it is refreshing to read about four children raised in post-industrial Massachusetts and Ohio who didn’t go off the rails and are still speaking, supporting and visiting each other. They have served their country in different ways and have been active and responsible citizens and raised their children to respect these values.

It is regrettable that in our digital age so much is ephemeral. Our faith in digital data, in the opinion of this old man, is badly misplaced. Just try to get a bank record from only a decade  ago. 

So, to have a printed family record of late 20^th century America is noteworthy, and more families should take the opportunity to record their lives, otherwise all posterity will be left with are the fatuous and largely fictitious accounts of long-forgotten “celebrities.”

While celebrities might make “trends” that last for a few weeks, and politicians write best-selling memoirs that are largely unread, it is ordinary families who shape the real future of the world, and understanding those lives is where real history lies.

What’s in Our Roots Remain as One for readers who didn’t know the Mullers? A clear snapshot of a time and place; a history of personal intellectual and spiritual growth and development; a record of how four individuals fit into one family and made the transition from youth to age while still respecting, loving  and forgiving each other; and, a better understanding of how character is built. After 20 years in the Navy, Dave worked as an analyst for an alphabet of government agencies, then as a consultant, and now in retirement is a writer. Deb became a police officer in Colorado; Kris had a career in nursing; and, Jan was an elementary school teacher. How and why they chose these jobs has broader interest, and it is worth noting that each of these careers were ones that contributed in a direct way to the country, community and to individual lives.

While they had many achievements and important accomplishments, none can be considered famous. I am reminded of Sir Thomas More's reply to Richard Rich when the latter - hungry for fame - asks more who would know if he became a good teacher: "You; your pupils; your friends; God. Not a bad public, that."