A Ray Of Life - My Kurzweil Dna: A Genealogical Journal in Poetry & Photos

This book tells a family's journey in nineteen poems and 290 photographs. Poetry includes: "I Once had a Daddy", " Good Morning Sweetheart" and "Explode With the Yellows". The photographs date from the 1800s to the present. Poetry, Photo Edit and Layout and Front and Back Cover Paintings by Enid Alyson Kurzweil. Back Cover: The word "Kurzweil" is a compound word meaning short (kurz) and time (weil). When put together to form one word, Kurzweil means "pastime". Actually, to understand the usage even more clearly, Kurzweil is the opposite of "langweil" which means "boring". So then, Kurzweil is the opposite of boring! It means, among other things, quick wit, entertaining, and comical. The oldest usage of the word Kurzweil refers to a buffoon or jester. When a king required the use of a jester, one way of referring to this jester was "Kurzweil". As many great literary works attest, it is the jester who is really the wisest. It is the person with a good sense of humor who can see life with a unique and healthy perspective. The Kurzweil tradition should be proud of this inherited character trait. Who was that ancestor of long ago who acquired and deserved this name of ours?1 --------------------------------- 1 Written by Arthur Kurzweil From "The Kurzweil Family History and Genealogy" 1976 Reprinted with permission.