Tag Archives: history
If you look
“If you look at an illuminated manuscript, even today, it just blows your mind. For them, without all the clutter and inputs that we have, it must have been even more extraordinary.” — Geraldine Brooks I started reading aloud to our sons when they were babies, and kept it up nightly until they were in …
Stories to tell
“With thousands of years of human habitation, this land surely has stories to tell. The trees rustle with whispers of those who have come and gone.” — from a display at the Visitor’s Center at Fort Raleigh National Historic Site Recently Jeff and I visited beautiful Roanoke Island, North Carolina, the site of the mysterious “Lost …
The greater part
“I am still determined to be cheerful and happy, in whatever situation I may be; for I have also learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions, and not upon our circumstances. We carry the seeds of the one or the other about with us in our …
Some things
“We know some things they didn’t know in the past, but they knew things that we’ve forgotten.” — Ashleigh Brilliant Here’s something to ponder: if you were to time-travel and suddenly swap places with a person of your age, gender and ability who lived two or more centuries ago, which of you would have a harder …
Exquisitely dependent
“We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology.” ― Carl Sagan I plead guilty to that! Or maybe not. On my list of things I find fascinating, my impulse would be to place “science and technology” near the bottom. Actually, though, I’ve …
Read history
“If you think you have it tough, read history books.” — Bill Maher I’m no fan of Bill Maher, but he has a point about history. It’s a great way to gain some perspective. Not long ago I read Bill Bryson’s fascinating book At Home, and I realized I’d never fully appreciated such things as electricity and sewer systems. From …
It still matters
“Tradition does not mean a dead town; it does not mean that the living are dead but that the dead are alive. It means that it still matters what Penn did two hundred years ago or what Franklin did a hundred years ago…” — G. K. Chesterton Tevye isn’t the only one who prizes tradition. …
Make them carry you
“If the winds of fortune are temporarily blowing against you, remember that you can harness them and make them carry you toward your definite purpose, through the use of your imagination.” — Napoleon Hill Windmills are a visually appealing reminder that forces beyond our control can be turned to good purpose. Wind-driven machines have been …
Don’t forget the present
“Remember the past, and prepare for the future, but don’t forget: the present is where you live.” — Ashleigh Brilliant The Hertford Bridge pictured above is part of Hertford College, of the University of Oxford in England. It connects the Old and New Quadrangles of that college, with administrative offices in the older building and student accommodations in …
The familiar exotic
“Make the familiar exotic; the exotic familiar.” — Bharati Mukherjee I’m pretty good at making the exotic familiar, or at least trying. When Jeff and I travel, we tend to avoid the tourist routes and go to places where the locals are: public transportation, grocery stores, municipal libraries. The more intriguing a city is, the more I am determined …
It’s helpful to remember
“In times like these, it is helpful to remember that there have always been times like these.” — Paul Harvey Today’s post is dedicated to all of us who are FED UP with: 1. traffic, gas prices and ridiculous parking costs; 2. the hassles of air travel; 3. public bus or rail system problems; or …
The one who thinks differently
“Freedom only for the supporters of the government, only for the members of one party – however numerous they may be – is no freedom at all. Freedom is always and exclusively freedom for the one who thinks differently. Not because of any fanatical concept of “justice” but because all that is instructive, wholesome and …
Primitive purity
“How has it come about that we use the highly emotive word ‘stagnation,’ with all its malodorous and malarial overtones, for what other ages would have called ‘permanence?’ Why does the word ‘primitive’ at once suggest to us clumsiness, inefficiency, barbarity? When our ancestors talked of the primitive church or the primitive purity of our …
Almost like talking
“Traveling is almost like talking with men of other centuries.” — source unknown; widely attributed to René Descartes Whether the area features a landscape that goes back one century or many, whether the ruins are real or reconstructed, I always feel a keen sense of connection to what came before. All places new to me have in common …
Defeat Despair 