Sibling Assignment #202: A Year of Reading History

Carol wants us to look back over the past year and reflect on this assignment:

Think back over the last year and write about something you have either read, listened to, or watched that has made a tremendous impact on your life. Share about it and why it impacted your life. 

Christy's post is here. Carol's is here.

I had a good year reading history, listening to historical podcast episodes, and watching documentaries. Everything I read or watched had, if not a tremendous impact, certainly a steady impact on me. I enjoy reading history because whether I'm learning about the Vietnam War, the demise of Richard Nixon's presidency, the history of New York City, or even the past of baseball, basketball, and golf, history always helps me see that the world of 2018 just isn't that unique. I don't find comfort in this realization. But, it does keep me from thinking of the past as the time when things were really good; it also helps me from thinking that things get better with time. Looking at the past helps me see continuity and patterns, especially in the history of the USA.

I don't know exactly how this works, why it is that we tend to carry what's come before us into the present and on into the future. The surface look of things might be different, but at a deep level, the conflicts in the United States regarding immigration, race, labor, guns, political corruption, cities vs rural areas, gender, transportation, the rights of states vrs the power of the federal government, and a host of other preoccupations in our country play out in arguments that have always been with us, fueled often by concerns and fears that also have always been with us.

In 2018, I watched eight episodes of Ric Burns' documentary series, New York: A Documentary Film. I really can't go into detail and depth about this extraordinary series except to say that to examine the history of New York City is, in many ways, to study the history of our country in a microcosm. Nearly everything that the USA has had to face is deeply embedded in the history of NYC, whether poverty, crime, immigration, racial conflict, land planning, transportation, the human relation to nature, etc.

I was overwhelmed by the enormity of what this series explored, which, in turn, left me feeling overwhelmed by the enormity of what we deal with in the life of our country. I find that history humbles me, helps me see how complicated and complex things always have been, and leads me to conclude that we, as a country, have always been divisive, have actually relished division, have always been torn apart from one another by something, and, that even when it might appear that one side or point of view prevails, it doesn't. The opposition gears up with the hope that it can win the day back and again and so the conflicts and fighting continue.


I'm going to leave it at that. I'm still sorting out the impact of the reading and listening and watching I've done over the past year and I'm not sure I'll ever succeed in articulating just what I've learned. But whether it's learning more about the building of the Brooklyn Bridge or the demolition of the original Penn Station or learning more about the original Fulton Fish Market or the decline in crabbing around Staten Island, I love learning more how the history of New York City and this past year has been glorious for doing that.