This is a face that I never touched or spoke with, but I know this face well.  It was the face of my Great-Grandfather, E. W. Everson.

If you are lucky enough to have photo’s of generations past then you are truly blessed.  It is amazing how this face staring back at us from the early 1900’s still has a smile and that Everson twinkle in the eye.

I know this face.  It is the face my grandfather also had.  His laughter lights up that face.  His snow white hair and the smell of Juicy fruit gum and peppermint candy grabbed my knee and squeezed to see if I was girl crazy yet.  I miss that face.  I can still hear his laughter and his indignation when I managed to beat him in a hand of pinochle.

I know this face.  It is the face of my father.  It is the face that I always looked too for favor and acceptance.  It was the face that taught me how to work and make it enjoyable even when it was not.  It was the face that confided lifes mystery’s and insecurities with.  The face that struggled with my becoming a man, no longer just his little boy.  The face I became estranged too, and only from a far did I grieve his passing.

My father once told me that everything was not in books.  I joked that he should write a book about that.  He just repeated himself.  I did not know what he was talking about, and I thought he was just taking a jealous shot at me, until I looked into my Great Grandfather’s story.  Fathers and sons faces are so simular that I think it is very hard looking at one another at times, knowing the potential and yet fearing the vulnerabitlities of that same shared face.

I know this face.  It is the face of the man in the mirror.  The Grizzly Groundswell, although inspired by my Great Grandfather’s story, it is our story of action that is what makes this movement relevant to our day and this political landscape.  Your ancestrial immigrant to this country stares back at you whenever you look in your mirror as well.  Can you imagine the prayer that these hopefull people had for you today?

Do you think that they every guessed God would bless them with the nation they have become?  I could not even guess how many individuals shared E. W. & Betsy’s face and they are only 4 generations away from myself.

We all have some great American stories…

April 18th, 2009 Chad Everson was awarded the Golden Sammie for his online effort in the Grizzly Groundswell.

Photo taken by Chetly Zarko of  http://www.oaklandpolitics.com/

One thing I always know is that Everson’s are always smiling!