Read this later

By Don Rittner

Once in a while, I get email asking me why I like history, or why do I think it’s so important. So, I’ve thought about it.

Why do you celebrate your birthday every year?  It’s a celebration of the day you were born – in the past, of course. You do it every year until your drop dead. That goes for wedding anniversaries, etc. Why do most people carry around pictures of loved ones in their wallets?  Why even take a photograph. It’s the past once the photo is snapped.

Why is genealogical research the second most frequented use of the Internet?  Why are all you folks tracking down your great-great-great grandmother’s nephew’s sister’s brother in law?  Huh?  What’s the big deal?  They’re dead! Why have gravestones?

Why are so many interested in keeping track of statistics in baseball, soccer, football, (insert sport of choice here)?  Some of you have so much of it in your head about who batted what, or hit X many times in 20 degree weather, it drives me nuts. Who cares what someone batted 100 years ago? You can’t do a thing about it now.

Why do we keep track of weather: temperature, barometric pressure, wind speed/direction, highs and lows?  Who cares if the high was one degree warmer fifty years ago?  Who cares what the “average” temperature is, and what are we suppose to do about those “dewpoint” records of 1952?

Why do we continue to read the classics? Hundreds of books are published each day.  Shouldn’t we simply read a new one and then toss it, never to open it up again? Why is it there is almost always a history related book on the New York Times Bestseller list? Since the National Book Awards began in 1950, history subjects are frequent winners.  In 2002, new titles and editions of books in the U.S. grew by nearly 6% to 150, 000 titles. Many of those books are history related.  Why?  Why has there been an increase in the publication of local history books (my Troy book has been reprinted a dozen times). Speaking of years, why do we even have a calendar?  Once a day is gone, why have a reminder of it hanging from your wall.  Ditto on time.  If we didn’t keep track of time, I would never be late getting my column to the editor.  In fact, there would be no such words as “late,” or “ago,” “last night,” or  “previously.” You get the picture!

Why do people keep listening to the same music over and over again? Turn off the radio. It’s so repetitive.  Listening to Linkin Park once without getting a headache is a monumental triumph already.  Why is classical music so popular? This stuff was written and performed over 150 years ago. We could do away with DVD and CD burners too!

Why are there libraries and archives?  They just hold books and stuff that were published years ago.  Why do we need to borrow this stuff and read them more than once?  Why does every little hamlet and Podunk have a historical society or museum showing all this “old” stuff?  Why are there thousands of archaeologists each year digging up the past?  What is this insatiable appetite to dig up people’s throw away’s and want to know “how they lived?”

What’s the deal with people dressing up in Civil War or Revolutionary War uniforms, and trying to live and fight like folks did 200 years ago?  Why are these war reenactments so popular?  Do you really want to walk around in all that linen in 90-degree weather? Why is it that 1 out of 3 foreign visitors to America want to visit a historical site?

It appears that so much of our life has to do with the past. Perhaps history is as much a state of mind as being human and eating and sleeping.  Just maybe history is the way we keep track of the present and allow us to predict the future based on past events. Maybe history gives us peace of mind; it allows us to validate our existence and to measure our strengths and weaknesses.  Maybe history has a purpose, after all, as an indicator of where we’ve been and can go as an individual and a people.

History is like wanting to build a house.  You need to learn how to use the tools before you can follow the blueprint.

So, cut out this column and put it in your wallet. The next time someone tells you history is not important, pull it out and make the person read it, and smile.  You will have the satisfaction of knowing they will be reading history.