History & Being There

Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect. ~Mark Twain
It is good to remember, just occasionally, that the majority once believed the world was flat, that the sun circled the earth & that Columbus discovered America.


History is a great leveler. Looked at unbiasedly it teaches us some interesting things. It teaches us that we don't know it all & have been wrong at least as often as we've been right. It teaches us to pay attention to incoming data; it changes things. If we pay attention it teaches us to learn from the mistakes of the past. It teaches us to number our days because nothing lasts forever; not Rome, not Babylon, not Persia. It teaches us to be grateful & the great sweep of God's outstretched hand because the Ottoman Empire sweeping one way did not annihilate Christianity & the Celtic monks evangelizing the other way saved much of European civilization. It teaches us that we forget the past at our peril.


I don't think the teaching of any subject is more important than history & the bible agrees with me. The Jews were instructed to teach their children diligently so that they wouldn't forget their past & what God had done for them. Every subject has its history, building on the knowledge that has been gained prior. And history teaches us that we aren't nearly as important a we like to think ourselves. It puts things into perspective.


We too have our little family histories & day by day we are building a past. Moment by moment we move towards our certain end until we pass into the warp of time gone by. OK, so I'm prone to being a little melancholic & *music to slit my wrists to* is my favourite sort of music but life is so often so fraught & prone to crisis of the tyrannical immediate that a little sober reflection on death is not amiss.


I've reached that in between stage. God willing I'm not about to die any time soon but the generation ahead is almost all gone. Losing my brother has depleted my generation by a third. I know that death may come quickly, unexpectedly. I have woken up to ordinary days to find them full of tragedy & sorrow & there is something I must do.


I'm not a big James Dobson fan but I was reading something he said after his heart attack. He could have died & when they released him, still very much alive, he went to his son Ryan & said something along the lines of: 'I could have died. You could've been burying me now. When I do die I know where I'm going & when your turn comes I expect to find you there. Be there! Nothing else is as important as that. Be there!'


Nothing else in this world is as important. Ditz might be a canary in girl's clothing but that's not the important thing. Liddy might be the next big thing in women's soccer but it doesn't matter. Dino & Theo might fish the ocean dry & Jossie change the world but each & every one of them will die. When that happens I expect them to have found the one who gives eternal life & to be there!
People get the history they deserve. ~Charles de Gaulle