History in the making
So this is kind of a weird thing to think about.
When I first think of 'history' I think of things that are super old...
Or at least a few hundred years.
I remember how incomprehensible it seemed to me, to imagine people living through things that we read about in history. For instance, in The Devil in the White City, they talked about people being in the Chicago World Fair, and on the Titanic. Obviously I know that happened but it feels distant when you just read it in books.
But then put it in context of family members. Think about what some people have lived through who are still alive today. World Wars. The Holocaust. The first man on the moon. Assassinations of presidents. Segregation. Women's rights movements. People were alive for this and are still living today.
What the fuck, right? That's how I feel, at least. Like-- wow, how can it be that there's someone I could conceivably still go to and get a first-hand account? It's not that it was actually that long ago, but it seems like it has to have been-- it seems like, have we REALLY only just done that? Human lives aren't particularly long, and yet our history seems to have been skyrocketing forward in the last few decades.
But then put it context of your own life and it's particularly bizarre.
While talking on lj in comments I mentioned offhandedly to someone, "I was in high school when Columbine happened so I remember how high school got a lot creepier for a bit afterward."
And then I started thinking about other big events that happened so far in my lifetime.
The Iraq War. Osama Bin Laden. Saddam Hussein. Hurricane Katrina. The first African-American president in the US. Gay rights expanding in the US. The explosion of the internet and technology. The Oklahoma City bombing. 9/11. Columbine, Sandy Hook, Virginia Tech, and all the other mass shootings. Or even things like Michael Jackson and his death.
That's just the stuff I thought of offhand. I'm sure there's more I'm forgetting. And of course, in this entry I'm only mentioning things to do with the US.
But, I mean, I'm not even 30 quite yet. It's not that long of a time period in context of the world's history. But still, this is how history happens, and now someday in the future someone will be reading about these things in a history book and look at me and think, how weird is it that I could ask her for a first-hand account of what it was like to be alive then?
You know what, future person? Not nearly as weird as realizing it, myself.
When I first think of 'history' I think of things that are super old...
Or at least a few hundred years.
I remember how incomprehensible it seemed to me, to imagine people living through things that we read about in history. For instance, in The Devil in the White City, they talked about people being in the Chicago World Fair, and on the Titanic. Obviously I know that happened but it feels distant when you just read it in books.
But then put it in context of family members. Think about what some people have lived through who are still alive today. World Wars. The Holocaust. The first man on the moon. Assassinations of presidents. Segregation. Women's rights movements. People were alive for this and are still living today.
What the fuck, right? That's how I feel, at least. Like-- wow, how can it be that there's someone I could conceivably still go to and get a first-hand account? It's not that it was actually that long ago, but it seems like it has to have been-- it seems like, have we REALLY only just done that? Human lives aren't particularly long, and yet our history seems to have been skyrocketing forward in the last few decades.
But then put it context of your own life and it's particularly bizarre.
While talking on lj in comments I mentioned offhandedly to someone, "I was in high school when Columbine happened so I remember how high school got a lot creepier for a bit afterward."
And then I started thinking about other big events that happened so far in my lifetime.
The Iraq War. Osama Bin Laden. Saddam Hussein. Hurricane Katrina. The first African-American president in the US. Gay rights expanding in the US. The explosion of the internet and technology. The Oklahoma City bombing. 9/11. Columbine, Sandy Hook, Virginia Tech, and all the other mass shootings. Or even things like Michael Jackson and his death.
That's just the stuff I thought of offhand. I'm sure there's more I'm forgetting. And of course, in this entry I'm only mentioning things to do with the US.
But, I mean, I'm not even 30 quite yet. It's not that long of a time period in context of the world's history. But still, this is how history happens, and now someday in the future someone will be reading about these things in a history book and look at me and think, how weird is it that I could ask her for a first-hand account of what it was like to be alive then?
You know what, future person? Not nearly as weird as realizing it, myself.