Dan (featured in the micro video) was too young to vote in the 2008 election, but he was pretty passionate about the candidate he wanted to see in the White House. He created this mural after the election, and N. and I went to see it on display at his local library.
On my way to work today, I heard a piece about the space shuttle Endeavour's launch. I remember the first launch so clearly. One of my brothers went to Florida just to see an early launch; I sure was envious.
I'm reading two novels for work right now: Willa Cather's My Antonia and Roddy Doyle's A Star Called Henry. Both are novels I enjoy a great deal, Cather's for the accuracy of her portrayal of Nebraska at a particular time, and Doyle's for his rambunctious take on the Irish Revolution.
I read anything about Tudor England, about Elizabeth I that I can find. I am rabid for overblown costume dramas about those times.
I don't claim to be a history buff, but there is no escaping it. Text book history may give the facts (granted, through the lens of the writing historian), but our art…our individual human experiences…our storytelling…those provide us with the intellectual and creative history to which I feel so closely tied.
What about you? What period of history do you like? What connects you to history?
Interesting question – I love your questions since they make me think hard. I think that what connects me to the past is my present. I’m a reflector. I look back several times a year – holidays, anniversaries, birthdays – and think about my personal past trying to put it into perspective with history. Historical periods that I love? Victorian, Civil War, WWII, Civil War.
Very Interesting. My passion for history has dwindled a little over the years.
I definitely was excited to learn that my ancestors broke the mould in their marriage – its something I am very proud of and in a sense its an example I have followed.
A frenchmen married a Hottentot and became part of that tribe instead of westernising his wife.
I’m all over the map. There isn’t any one period that I’m passionate about or that calls to me. Lately I liked The Help (http://www.amazon.com/Help-Kathryn-Stockett/dp/0399155341/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265725417&sr=8-1) about slavery.
Wonderful painting! He is really talented.