Okay, I'm always thinking about history. Making it, living it, presenting it, teaching it, you name it. I believe that every day we all wake up (hopefully, if not, I'm really sorry and will be more than happy to send your family a covered dish) put our feet on the floor, go through our day and that is history. It is private, or public or personal history but history all the same. Of course, that doesn't mean that I wake up and think; "oh boy! I'm going to make history today!" It doesn't really happen that way. I doubt I will ever make the history books but then I doubt if many of the signers of the Declaration of Independence thought that they would make the history books. I could be wrong about that. I'm pretty sure they knew that what they were doing was historic but I doubt if they thought much further than; "Crap! This could get me killed but its got to be done."
With the advent of digital media just hitting the post, publish, or submit button creates history. It is that instant and can be that lasting. Websites are being archived,
tweets are being collected,
and blogs are being curated. It seems that most everything is or can be put out for public consumption and a good portion of it is kept (speaking of which, are ya'll archiving your blog posts? You should be. Think of this as a journal or diary. Someday, your children's children may want to know what grandma or grandpa were thinking, doing or saying. Old diaries are a wonderful source of social and personal history).
I am now envisioning all of you reading through your posts and tweets than frantically deleting the ones you don't want your descendants to read . Please don't think of sanitizing your posts because your future family may think; "OMG, great grandma had a potty mouth" or "Wow, I so did not need to know that grandpa had diaper rash from hell".
These dairy entries are the stuff of history. They will someday put context and individuality to our lives and social structure in the future. They will allow our descendants to 'know' us. They will make learning, researching and studying history more interesting to those that come after us. They will give people in the future a point of reference for why things are how are are in the their time.
This is so not where I was going with this post at all. I was going to talk about the history of the universities that I have attended and how they are inter-related and about the history of higher education in America. This post sort of took on a life of its own but I'm going to call it all good since this is a subject that I am passionate about.
It has made me think about my posts. About how I tend not to talk about certain subjects, such as politics, religion, family members personal issues (they can get their own blogs if they want to talk about stuff about them. This here blog is about me), and sex, though I have strong views on all of these topics. I like to think that I have reserved this space for all the flotsam that rolls around in my head. I think I'll keep it that way but maybe be a little more opening in sharing my views and feelings. Maybe, just a little less flippant. Though, if I'm to be totally honest I tend towards flippancy. I thing I've been more honest than I thought. I feel much better now.
Once again, not where I planned to go with this. Sorry.
Love,
M
