Margaret (Molly Unsinkable) Brown

History is one of my favorite subjects. Not the dates, or epic battles necessarily but the people, their experiences and what we can learn from them. I really enjoy a good museum trip here and again. It’s like you’re a detective, discovering the clues of the past and putting together the whole story.

It’s been a while since I’ve gone to a museum and now that my lovely sister-in-law is in town, she shares my love for history too, it was time to partake in some times past. So Momma Jane, Karen and I set out for an adventure to see the Molly Brown House in Denver. I walked away with many thoughts to ponder…

The tour itself was very entertaining. Information galore, including the really name of Molly Brown was Margaret. If it hadn’t been for her grandson drinking sour milk, making him sick, she wouldn’t have been on the famous Titanic…which is probably the only reason we ever heard of her… and how she saved the people on her lifeboat with sharing her furs and stockings. I didn’t know she was a main reason why we have safety demonstrations on planes and boats, all of that was because of her experience on the mighty unsinkable boat. She knew many more lives could have been saved and didn’t want that level of catastrophe ever to happen again. She was a huge political advocate for people, such as the miner children and the conditions they worked in. She traveled, she learned languages and the arts, and she was a modern woman who fought for rights.

However…

She spent her life searching it seems. She was ambitious, young and passionate for life. Married a poor miner at the age of 19 with dreams of them making it rich someday; although he was 10 years her senior, he adored her, and after much pursuing they married. Had two children and settled into life in Leadville, CO. A long story short, he ended up with a deed to an empty silver mine…which those older executives thought they had unloaded the worthless mine…ended up giving up the largest gold strike in all of Colorado. They were instantly wealthy!
Life fast forwarded, to the house on Pennsylvania Avenue, her travels, her schooling, her political involvement…and all her amazing accomplishments that put her in the history books.

However…

The foremost part of that tourthat struck me… was this one picture of her with her family…

She said this photograph of her and her family, was her "happiest time in life" ... so right after they found out their amazing wealth right? ...no. It was taken before their wealth. It struck me how profound this lesson is. With all her pursuits in life, she forgot her family along the way, her husband died separated from her for the last 20 or so years. They had parted ways, for she had wanted to live the way she had become accustom, and he had wanted to retire to his mountains and a simpler life. It’s also rumored that when her husband died, her and her children fought over his remaining estate and the end result was the never spoke again. She died 10years later of a brain tumor.

Even among all her incredible life story, seeing the world’s treasures, learning at top schools…it wasn’t fulfilling. Good was done with her wealth; personal achievement was great for any person; she had everything she had wanted. Unlimited income to purchase items to her heart content… it didn’t satisfy.

Its not wrong to have a degree, or money or any of those things, but that can't be the center of life. It’s easy to get caught up in obtaining…whether that is wealth, status, education, political influence, achievement…but is that what really counts?

The world says it does, but I think through the life lessons of Margaret Brown, it doesn’t bring happiness.

Luke 10:27