When I was at work the other day, my fellow employees and I were conversing with my boss, a man in his late fifties, and the twists and turns of the usual oddities of our everyday conversation turned to the past. Our boss talked about how he remembered seeing the first "Star Trek" and "Star Wars" movies, and all of the excitement and anticipation surrounding those films. He then looked back further, and talked about his memories of the Space Race and America’s landing on the moon. This struck me suddenly, and it got me thinking about the past as well.
Our culture as a whole, and even more particularly, the younger generation, is very future-orientated, nearly ignoring the past and pushing it aside. We instead focus on the next technological advancement, the next big trend, the latest in words and ideas. While the future is important and useful, we tend to be so focused on what is next that we forget about what was. We are so engaged with what we hope will happen that we forget what we have been through. We value “living in the moment,” as we are living in a world that does not allow any time to stop and reflect.
This work conversation made me realize one of the ways we ignore and forget about the past. Simply put, history is not dead, but it is living and vibrant! The people all around us have stories and have experienced first-hand what we read about in history books. When we study history, it may seem dry and dusty; however, in reality, it is truly important to our present. For example, the last widow of a Civil War veteran died in 2004, when the vast majority of you reading this article were living. Likewise, the last veteran of World War I died only four years ago. History of a hundred years ago and longer is in living memory, or secondhand memory, with stories open and present, still visible.
On a more personal level, I was recently blessed to get to know an older gentlemen in our church who everyone thinks of as a grandfather figure. He is one of the best storytellers I have ever met, and has told fascinating stories of the last 70 years, stories of the joys and struggles of raising children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Some of the most fascinating stories were of his time in the Dutch Resistance in World War II, watching the German troops march into the country, hiding with many people (including the woman who became his wife in a barn!) and the feeling of joy and delight when the Liberation forces arrived and the British planes dropped long-desired food.
To summarize, embrace the history looming all around you, the stories hidden everywhere in the people you walk by every day, the long and meaningful lives. Do not become so fixated upon future possibilities that you forget the wonder of what you have seen.
