“The past is history, the future is a mystery, but today is a gift—that’s why they call it ‘the present’.” This is a random quote stated by someone and I took it from the internet. However, it is true. The past is gone. It cannot be changed, moved, modified, or rewritten. The future is also a mystery, although plans can be loosely made. Today is all we have.
Yet many people, these days live in the past. They want the past to change somehow. This is especially clear with the various riots over historical statues. In America, the Civil War is an important part of our history. It made us what we are as a country. Slavery is also a vital part of our history. To understand how inhuman some people can be to others is important to know and study, so that it does not happen again. Yet, there are those who want to sanitize the past, somehow. Statues of General Robert E. Lee remind of a time that we do not want repeat, yet if we remove all traces of the Civil War and all traces of slavery in America, what will be left with. No one alive today owned American slaves, and no one alive today fought in the civil war. All we have are memorials.
In the book of Joshua, when Joshua leads the Israelites across the Jordan into the promised land, they do something very special. When they crossed the Jordan on dry land, they took twelve stones from the riverbed of the Jordan river. The took them to the side of the promised land and they stacked them. Those stones were to remain there forever, so that when children and grand children saw them they would be told the story of the Exodus and how their fathers walked on dry land to conquer the promised land. God also instituted Passover and several other remembrances that his people are to remember each year with stories and food. Not to destroy or correct the past and certainly not to live in the past, but to remember what God did in the past, knowing that if he did great things then, he can and will do great things now and in the future.
But if we hate the past, if we try and remove the past, if we curse the past because it shows us something about ourselves that we do not want to see, what prevents us from becoming ugly and self-serving and violent again. What will prevent the oppression of one people by another and what will prevent another civil war.
Already on the conservative talk shows they are talking about another civil war between the progressive left and the gun toting right. If we do not have statues to point to and shout “beware” and battle fields to visit and cry, “caution” then we can go headlong into violence and division and another civil war.
George Santayana said: "Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it." Let me add that if we erase our past, then there will be nothing to learn and we will repeat it.
Yet many people, these days live in the past. They want the past to change somehow. This is especially clear with the various riots over historical statues. In America, the Civil War is an important part of our history. It made us what we are as a country. Slavery is also a vital part of our history. To understand how inhuman some people can be to others is important to know and study, so that it does not happen again. Yet, there are those who want to sanitize the past, somehow. Statues of General Robert E. Lee remind of a time that we do not want repeat, yet if we remove all traces of the Civil War and all traces of slavery in America, what will be left with. No one alive today owned American slaves, and no one alive today fought in the civil war. All we have are memorials.
In the book of Joshua, when Joshua leads the Israelites across the Jordan into the promised land, they do something very special. When they crossed the Jordan on dry land, they took twelve stones from the riverbed of the Jordan river. The took them to the side of the promised land and they stacked them. Those stones were to remain there forever, so that when children and grand children saw them they would be told the story of the Exodus and how their fathers walked on dry land to conquer the promised land. God also instituted Passover and several other remembrances that his people are to remember each year with stories and food. Not to destroy or correct the past and certainly not to live in the past, but to remember what God did in the past, knowing that if he did great things then, he can and will do great things now and in the future.
But if we hate the past, if we try and remove the past, if we curse the past because it shows us something about ourselves that we do not want to see, what prevents us from becoming ugly and self-serving and violent again. What will prevent the oppression of one people by another and what will prevent another civil war.
Already on the conservative talk shows they are talking about another civil war between the progressive left and the gun toting right. If we do not have statues to point to and shout “beware” and battle fields to visit and cry, “caution” then we can go headlong into violence and division and another civil war.
George Santayana said: "Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it." Let me add that if we erase our past, then there will be nothing to learn and we will repeat it.
Comments
Post a Comment