This old codger, as he’s mentioned before, has pretty much always been smitten by an unrequited, subliminal love for what we choose to call “history” — i.e., our inexorable effort to explore and explain who we were, who we are, how we got here, and who we should and might become.
And what he’s discovered over the years is — big surprise! — what’s often excessively theatrical and soberly dispensed to us in extremely thick volumes as “history” is almost never a true mirror or record of what we as human beings have collectively done over the years.
Why? Certainly, a bunch of reasons.
First, they’re just stories we tell about ourselves or about others of our fellow human beings. And since we’re eminently and thoroughly fallible, with substantive political and other biases, predilections, and individual points of view, even if we consciously work to be “professionally objective” and not color our story, our unconscious biases must almost inevitably be reflected in that story.
Second, we, as human beings, have culturally, socially, and almost certainly psychologically evolved tremendously over the centuries.
Third, our human understanding of and general/ popular education about “what has gone on around us” — what we call “science,” i.e., anthropology, sociology, psychology, biology, chemistry, physics — has inexorably expanded our awareness as well. So, what culturally was accepted as “par for the course” or normal in the past has evolved enormously.
The examples are everywhere: our views about war, incest, treatment of spouses, the fragility of women, the sanctity of religion, the sanctity of life itself, slavery, the supremacy (or lack thereof) of European/western culture, equality of the sexes, racial and ethnic superiority or inferiority.
The fact is that “history” is an always-evolving, ever more challenging effort to open our eyes to the truth of our actual, inexorable, and fragile human story.
The caveat — the clear and inexorable warning to all of us as beautiful children of God, as human beings — is that we must be focused on our inevitably human frailties and fallibilities: greed, a lust for power and control. Pretty much all of God’s seven deadly sins have, can, and will inevitably engulf and submerge us if we do not fight with all our will.
We must particularly focus on and decry, with every effort of our will, those who would explicitly lie about our story to cover up their sins, pervert their fellow human beings’ lives and stories, and duplicitously attempt to create an obscenely false narrative.
Negligence might be forgiven of us as fallible human beings, but explicit attempts to besmirch and obliterate generations of human lives — their sufferings, struggles, and endeavors — are beyond disgusting.
We are His children, and we must inexorably and inevitably be focused on His love and His beautiful embrace of truth. Those of us who would not do so will inevitably and rightfully be condemned to abject damnation.
Hey, sorry — just sayin’.
Until next time,
The old codger sittin' here under the beautiful River Tree
