History or Amnesia

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Earlier this week, I took on a challenge. I’m on a mission to help a young man in our community change his mind about history. In a one-on-one conversation, he told me that he likes history, but . . . .

I wish I could remember his exact words, but basically this young man (for whom I have a great deal of respect) told me that the people of his generation (he’s about 30) want to chuck that history stuff and move on. Earlier that same day I had read a history quote online. It was attributed to the effective history writer David McCullough. Though I found the quote on one site after another, I wasn’t able to confirm that McCullough is the one who said it. If he did, kudos to Mr. McCullough. Here’s the quote:

A nation that forgets its past can function no better than an individual with amnesia.

While I can’t confirm who first made that statement, I can confirm that I believe it is true. I know McCullough believes so, too, because I recently listened to his 2017 book, The American Spirit: Who We Are and What We Stand For, read by the author. It was a collection of speeches he has given at university commencements, at the White House, at the U.S. Capitol, and other institutions over the course of several decades.

McCullough’s dedication of the book won my heart. He dedicated it to his nineteen grandchildren. It was special to hear him read each of their names. His afterword was also encouraging. There I learned that his daughter helped him choose the speeches for this book and that for years, she has made arrangements for him to speak.

I enjoyed the book very much. While I can’t say that I nodded in agreement to every word, my heart did nod again and again with almost all of them. McCullough emphasized to his listeners that knowledge of history is crucial and he told us why.

McCullough quoted a statement that future President John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail in reference to the American War for Independence. Adams said:

We can’t guarantee success in this war, but we can do something better. We can deserve it.

I love knowing that when John Adams committed himself to helping America gain independence, he recognized that he couldn’t control how things turned out, but he and the other patriots could control how they conducted themselves.

History is about remembering and about putting into practice what we remember. God wired history into our very DNA. It goes like this: Touch a hot stove. Get burned. Remember the burn the next time you start to touch a hot stove. The past teaches us about the present and the future.

If we are wise, we will also remember what happened when someone else touched a hot stove and let their past teach us, too. When we learn history, we learn many lessons that teach us how to live today.

Our daughter Mary Evelyn and her daughter and I went to the post office together last week to purchase a supply of stamps before the postage prices went up. The stamps I picked commemorated the Battle of New Orleans, World War I, and the repeal of the Stamp Act. When I told the clerk my choices, she noted that I had chosen history. Yep!

So, back to the young man who wants to move on from history . . .

I don’t want to make too much of his casual statement, but I do want to learn lessons from it and pass them on to you. I wondered how far the people he mentioned want to go with this chucking the past and moving on. One of my first thoughts was, “What about the Bible?” That’s the far past. If we chuck that, we are really in trouble.

As I thought about how to close this post, I looked at the first chapter of Proverbs. I looked at the words wisdom, instruction, understanding, discretion, learning, and wise counsel. Each of those is based on history in one way or another. Solomon wanted his son to know what his father already knew.

The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel:
To know wisdom and instruction,
To discern the sayings of understanding,
To receive instruction in wise behavior,
Righteousness, justice and equity;
To give prudence to the naive,
To the youth knowledge and discretion,
 A wise man will hear and increase in learning,
And a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel,
To understand a proverb and a figure,
The words of the wise and their riddles.
Proverbs 1:1-6

 

 

 

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