Times of Trial

I think that all too often when studying history we get caught up in the events, in what happened and sometimes run the risk at looking at the past all too objectively. History is a blanket woven not from thread or yarn but from the lives of those who went before us. So often we judge an individual's entire life based on a mere snap shot. All too frequently we forget the humanity of the historical figures we learn about--no one is perfect and it is far easier to look back and place a judgment on something or someone than it is to make a judgment in the future. We forget our hindsight bias as we shake our fingers at choices made.

I believe that the past can still be very much alive if we see and understand it as the lives of people and not merely a string of events. Sometimes I wish I had some kind of power to travel back and act as an omniscient observer during key moments in history. How incredible would it be to listen in on the protracted debates between the founding fathers, to peer into the lives of people who made our country what it is today. What would I give to hear John Adams speak or watch Jefferson as his quill scribbled across a page. To live in history for a brief moment in time. Take a vacation among the waves of the past.