“If you don’t know history, then you don’t know anything. You are a leaf that doesn’t know it is part of a tree” (Michael Crichton).
I’ve always been one to dwell on memories. Ask Ryan about some of my family get togethers–it’s full of “do you remember when Chelsea…” or “that was just like that time when Ashleigh…” or “Grandpa Pa always said…” After taking a StrengthsFinder™ quiz at work I learned why: one of my main strengths as a person is context. This means that “people strong in the Context theme enjoy thinking about the past. They understand the present by researching its history.”
Context is very important because it not only helps you understand events of the past but also how to use that knowledge to handle current issues (the whole “history repeats itself” adage). I’ve always enjoyed history and geography, especially when it comes to the Bible, and I have found that I understand the big picture better when I can place the individual stories and details in their respective regions, cultures and times. I use this knowledge not just for Bible study and teaching, but for solving problems at my job, when documenting a process to improve or even when gardening. History and geography are indispensable to making our lives better now and in the future.
Unfortunately, it seems like the rest of our American culture in general is forgetting even simple history lessons. Lately we’ve seen politicians reinventing Paul Revere’s ride or the location of the Shot Heard ‘Round the World, “fourth graders unable to say why Abraham Lincoln was an important figure” (NY Times) and remarkably “less than half of eighth-graders knew that Islam originated in what is now Saudi Arabia” (Wall Street Journal). I realize that our current economic crisis is bad, but what I foresee is that our future will be destroyed by those who don’t have any historical or geographical context in which to make decisions.
Tonight we were browsing through books at a Barnes & Noble and noticed that they had rearranged a bit. As we went back to the furthest corner of the store we happened to notice that all the history books, geography and Bibles had been relocated there. The three subjects that most Americans are worst at–now in the very back of the store.
