Sunday, November 08, 2009

May You Live in Interesting Times

When I was a teen-ager, I got into history in a big way. This was way before video games

or computers, so my media of choice was the venerable book. I literally wore out my library

card borrowing various books on a myriad of historical subjects. Within a short time, I, in my

naivete', began to bemoan the fact that" we live in boring times". In my ridiculous opinion

nothing of any exciting or "romantic" effect happened anymore. Sure, we had history, but it was

all so lame! No hordes of barbarians sweeping across the plains, no great armies converging to

give battle, no invasions of conquest; ugh! it was just all so boring. Little did I know just how

not boring the future was to become. In the ensuing thirty years, since I had that dumb

thought, I've witnessed some of the most important pivitol events of history. The "evil

empire" of the Soviet Union collapsed, Germany was re-united, the nations of Europe formed a

of union of their own, the U.S. had itself embroiled in five wars, and we, as a nation, elected the

first black Marxist president, who promises to end the Republic for all time. Yes, we certainly

live in interesting times, I just hope I live long enough to see some of the wrongs righted.

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