I never paid attention in history class. I blame it on too much sugar in my diet. Lots of Coke and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. In High school, I ate them for breakfast and Lunch. We ate dinner as a family until I got my drivers license. Then I ate taco bell or Burger King for Lunch. Not because I liked it for the taste, but I loved the convenience. The breakfast items in high school were garbage anyway, so I may as well have chocolate for breakfast.
I never paid attention in history class. It seemed more like fiction than fact. Vikings, Ice Age, The Holocaust. I was middle class suburban kid. None of this was the slightest bit real. Who could imagine such things? My dad was in Vietnam. (When a 30-something American says this, they are referring to The Vietnam War.) He in flew a helicopter. He never really talks about it, but then yet, I’ve been afraid to ask. My grandmother says he doesn’t like to talk about it. My dad then became a fireman. My dad knows death. He’s seen it, first hand, several times. I don’t know death. A close friend to my mom’s side of the family died when I was 10 and that was my first funeral. I didn’t go to see the body with everyone else. I never heard my mom cry so hard, except maybe when my dad left when I was 5.
As an adult, History is a most fascinating subject to me. World history, US history, Presidential history. It’s interesting to see how history repeats itself. I’ve always been fascinated with Time Travel. So imagining what it would be like to go back in time is especially fun. With the current state of the economy, I’ve been researching economic history. Following the parallels of the great depression and what’s happening today. They’ve done a ton of movies about people who go forward in time to pick stocks, or football game winners, then return to present to place bets. What if we were tracing the curve set back in the 1930’s. It would be easy to make a ton of money, assuming you had some money to bet in the first place.
My grandmother was 6 years old when her dad lost his job in the depression. I told her we were headed for another one and she said it wouldn’t happen again because we have all sorts of gadgets now. As if the gadgets will feed us when the circulation of money stops.
I was born in America at the end of a millennium. Things have been good. I’ve struggled to make things better when maybe I should have just enjoying what I had. A lot of you have a similar story. It’s probably part of being human.
How will history reflect our reality? What’s going to happen in the next couple of years? In 500 years, if we haven’t all killed each other yet, people will be looking back at the ‘beginning of the millennium’. Jenn and I watched 60 minutes last night. They had a report about people losing their 401k’s. Most people still have their original invested capitol, but all the money they thought they had made in interest…. is gone. Where did it go? Some of it was never there in the first place due to the housing bubble. The equity wasn’t sustainable. But where did the rest of “their” interest go?
History tells us that really bad things have happened. Really bad things that much of my generation can’t fathom. History also proves that history repeat’s itself. I am not a paranoid conspiracy theorist. (Although I do love good fiction and drama.) The universe is in seek of balance. This American has been really lucky. So lucky and isolated. I am wondering if my time has come to pay for all the luxuries I have enjoyed. If I can’t earn money and I blow thru my savings, I suppose I will have to move where it is warm and live in a tent. No one seems to want to entertain any possibility of serious worldwide tragedy. As if, it could never happen (again). These are the same people who were stunned and scratched their heads on September 12th, 2001. Haven’t any of you studied your history?
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