1997

“People don’t remember what happened long ago, and in the future people will not remember what happens now. Even later, other people will not remember what was done before them.”

--Ecclesiastes 1:11

Everyone is watching what is happening with the economy and the stock market. The reporters are saying the market is now at levels that haven’t been seen since 1997. It made a few of my broker friends remark, “here’s a chance to buy at 1997 prices.” That doesn’t help much when your IRA is down 35% (or more), but it made me think. What if we really could go back? Back to 1997. That’s twelve years. Think about how much has happened in your life in those twelve years. What in those twelve years would you do over, repair, repeat or prevent?

Noted historian David McCullough often says it is a mistake to think of history as “The Past.” No one lives in the past. We all live in our “present.” McCullough is absolutely right. History is a story and that is what makes his books so great. He tells the story.

Every time I read my Bible I am astounded by what is in there. Truth is a constant. So, when I found this passage in Ecclesiastes, I wasn’t surprised. There it is. The history, the past, is repeated over and over and it seems we never learn, or remember. But I think it is also a simple basic of human nature, we think things will “work out better this time.” Maybe they will, but history (someone else’s “present”) is a great teacher. We can benefit from what has happened before. It is a mistake to look at history through today’s eyes. McCullough says the mistake is thinking that things happened the way they did because they were supposed to.

Nothing could be further from the truth. McCullough also says that history is sometimes defined as this happening, then this, then that. As if a sequence was laid out in advance. This person, that date, this happened.

So, when we pick up our Bible, we study another past. Another history. A history from more than 2000 years ago. A history that is as relevant today as it was then. The past. Our present. Connected by this wonderful Book, forever. 

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Notes: The Bible I use is the Holy Bible, Every Day Study Edition. New Century Version. Edited by Joel B. Green, Ph.D., and Tremper Longman III, Ph.D. Published by Word Publishing. I bought several Bibles before I found this one, and I cannot live without it.

One of my goals for 2009 is to read every word David McCullough has written. I have read his brilliant John Adams and 1776, and I am now reading Mornings on Horseback, his biography of Theodore Roosevelt. David McCullough is a national treasure and his books are truly a gift to this country. None of his books are out of print. My McCullough quotes are from his talk in 2005 at the Cambridge Forum. It can be downloaded from learnoutloud.com.