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On Friday, Tim Russert died. There was a lot of coverage about it and I looked at all of it for the entire weekend. One word came up quite a lot. Of course, the word was "history." The way it was used made me realize that history is not long ago. History is now.
We live in one of the most historic of times. The last almost eight years were historic. We may not like it, but we lived it. This election in which we are right in the middle is historic... one of the most historic ever. Bill Clinton's presidential years were historic. Some of it was National Enquirer and it is historic. He was impeached over it. Historic.
Then I read some of your posts and realize that they are history!! Some of you lived through the first moon landing, the assassination of a president, the Viet Nam War, World War II, the opening of Disneyland, Woodstock (Tim Russert was there), putting more stars on the flag, putting more words into the Pledge of Alligiance, the beginnings of regular TV viewing with "live" broadcasts, the beginnings of rock, massive changes in medicine (the Salk vaccine, heart transplants), the return of Apollo 13, drive-ins, no malls, glass milk bottles, glass coke bottles...
Yes, I did live through some of this. I don't remember them ... but I have relatives that talked a lot about "the old days," I paid attention in school, and I read a lot. Most of it is common general knowledge. I do love a lot of the older music, perhaps because the generations before me loved it. I don't know.
Many times in my mind, I am in the past... history. Much of history has been preserved for us in film. We can buy them on DVDs, and see them on television at times. We can look them up on the internet at any time. It IS intriguing. I've been fascinated with history all along, just never realized it. I have had discussions with Jason (BumpedOff) about old films and watched a few. They were in the film noire genre. They were captivating, showing how people lived within the time when some people living today remember. (By the way, where is Jason?)
I just read an article on the web about Johnny Cash. It was by his son and he said that he learned from his dad, "He taught me that it's not about the destination, it's about the journey." The journey... historic... Johnny is part of history.
We may not be famous, but we are part of history. We are... "We, the people..." And, we have influence on history, in the coming election, in the foods we select, in our contribution to global warming, in our purchases, in everything we do. "If a butterfly flaps its wings in Brazil, it affects us all." Yes, we are the butterfly.
I still get lost.
If I were to compile a 'wish list' & a 'genie' were to grant me my wish, I would get a 'time machine' & travel back to see diffenent places and people. I would never try to do anything to 'change' history - too many ramifications would occur, but I would love to go and view . . .