The sign read:
Snake River.
I asked a couple standing
nearby. "Is this really the Snake River?"
They pointed to
the sign and nodded affirmatively.
None of my camera
work could ever be compared to that of Ansel Adams, who produced some "nice
stuff" of the Snake back in 1942, but just to sort of walk in his footsteps in
the foothills of the Teton Mountains of Wyoming is good enough for me.
Who writes history?
Which of these is a true
statement?
"History is written by the
winners."
"Those who cannot learn from
history are doomed to repeat it."
"We spend a great deal of time
studying history, which, let's face it, is mostly the history of stupidity."
"That men do not learn very
much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons that
history has to teach."
There are variations of all
four, of course, and since written words are a relatively new feature in the
overall scope of time, no one can know with certainty when the concept of each
first was realized. There is some truth in each statement, but not one of them
is a universal truth. Thucydides, an Athenian general among the Old Greeks,
echoed the first; George Santayana and a host of others have parroted the
second; Stephen Hawking is credited with the third; Aldous Huxley wrote the
fourth in his, "Collected Essays."
My own idea is that history is
written by those interested in writing it .... although I would wager a great
deal of money that idea hardly is a new one. As the unknown author of Ecclesiastes
noted: "What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be
done, and there is nothing new under the sun."
It also is a well-known and
often-noted fact that eye-witness testimony frequently is contradictory and not
always accurate. Ask three witnesses to an armed robbery and it is not unusual
to hear three variations of the event. Ask a soldier what he witnessed during a
battle and then ask another soldier who was five yards away from the first, and do
not be surprised if you hear a different story.
What people see and hear depends
usually on what is happening specifically to them and to where their attention generally
is focused.
So, one more time? Who writes
history?
6 comments:
Many pardons ....
Idiot here accidentally deleted this post and its comments. What you are seeing here now is a rough draft of the original post minus the comments. In recent months, I have made copies of "finished products," but neglected to do so on this one. I think I will simply let this version stand as is, maybe tweaking it a bit if I notice something I wish to modify.
I always have been a backup fanatic, often keeping copies of material at home, at "the office" and in my vehicle. Hopefully, this will teach me to resume that habit and to be more careful and to take second looks at the screen before hitting the delete key.
Especially unfortunate, from my point of view, the comments are lost forever. My habit does not include making copies of them. My apologies especially to Kaya and Anita and Liplatus and Piper who did leave comments for me. I hope I did not forget anyone.
To complicate matters, June 25 is "Custer Day" and I am preparing a post going up for it ....
Oh, well .... no one ever said life would be easy and/or uncomplicated ....
After decades, I spent last evening in nostalgia.. I remember dancing to the tunes of ‘I want to break free’ with someone I thought was the love of my life!! It’s magical how a single song made me feel like I was 18 again! SO many memories like a smattering of raindrops streaming down the window as I sit here typing.. and I remember and long for those times when everything was magical; everything was happy; when everything was easy..
It certainly has been quite a while since I last visited! Life happened in the mean while. I graduated from med school and I'm currently training to be a Neurologist! Life has been good, mostly. I have had to give up on the comfort of familiarity, leave the only home I’ve known in the last 15 years, and move way out of my comfort zone in search of what I think will bring me happiness. And freedom. But as I leave Minnesota, I cannot help but wonder if I will ever be free..
Someday I hope to return back home. Until then, I will try to visit you more than I have in the past.
I see I already have another post to catch up on! It took me a while to write to you. Tell me, were you waiting? :)
I am not sure if you saw my response to your original comment for this post, Piper, so here it is in case you did not see it .... now, I will get busy and write a reply to this latest comment from you:
-----------------
Ah, Piper! You never fail to surprise .... you vanish for months at a time, then abruptly and mysteriously appear again ....
If anyone can distinguish winners from losers, a woman who once-upon-a-time was a medic in the army of India during a shooting war between India and Pakistan would be among them. I suppose in the truest sense of a war, the winners are those whose nation is a sovereign entity at the conclusion of the conflict .... certainly, it would not be those who actually were involved in the fighting .... even those on the winning side lose something of themselves.
I am curious. Have you been or are you now in medical school?
If you have not heard the music of Queen for a while, it is your own fault, young lady, but I must admit I go for months at a time without thinking of the band .... then something or someone leads me back and I get to fall in love with its music all over again.
I am happy. It is a pleasant surprise to discover you and your comment on one of my posts.
Thank you, Piper, for being here, and I hope your presence will be more than momentary.
To begin at the ending of your comment, Piper, most certainly I have been waiting for you. You never have disappeared completely, so I "knew" you would reappear sooner or later. There have been times when you stopped by here and left a comment for me; there have been times when you have posted yourself .... the only question has been is she simply passing by or will she stay around? And, while you appear to have answered the question, we have yet to learn what the future will be ....
I think music might be the most powerful of external forces on our memories and on our emotions. There are more than a few songs which stir the deepest recesses of my memory and dredge up long-ago, mostly-forgotten events and people. I have seen many bands and/or singers in live concerts -- some like the Rolling Stones and Bobby Dylan multiple times -- but there are many more I never have seen and know I never will because they no longer exist for one reason or another. A live performance of Queen is one of the concerts lost to me forever .... and that bothers me more than it should ....
I am glad for you in the sense that you seem to be on the road to a career in medicine that you think/hope will make you happy/free. It is said, probably accurately, that actual happiness comes from within a person and not from outside factors. From my point of view, that probably means my search will be endless and without a satisfactory conclusion. In the meanwhile, I have learned to be content with episodes of momentary happiness.
Again, I am pleased and happy that you have found your way back here and I sincerely hope that as you wrote, you "will try to visit ... more than ... in the past."
Take care and be safe, Piper. I hope we both find what we are looking for ....
Just stopping by to say hello! I see i have a lot of catching up to do :) I finally have some time today and I plan to sit outside in the sun under my favorite tree on campus and read of your adventures. I think I need some food for the soul. I have earned it today after working 16 hours/day for 12 days straight! Hope to get back to you soon :) Keep writing, my friend..
You work too hard ....
I am sure I am not the first to say that to you, Piper.
Other than a timeless stretch or two or three when in the military, my "personal best" was working 12-hour days for a month without a break and there was one job where I would have around 50 hours in after three days .... but, those times were when I was young and strong .... hmmmm ....
By my count, I have 11 other posts written since this one. You have much to catch up on, young lady. With your military background, I especially would suggest you look at the August 20 post.
Thank you, for returning, Piper, and for reading and for writing here again. May good fortune always be your companion ....
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