Don’t live in the past, be the past

Philosopher George Santayana once advised, “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”
Unbeknownst to me, I took his advice to heart in my youth. I was in the seventh grade when I developed a great interest in the subject of history. Of course, at that age, I was not aware that the content I found so fascinating had a lesson behind it.
But by the time I graduated from high school, I was reciting the U.S. Constitution, the Declaration of Independence and the Gettysburg Address in my head, not so much because I found these subjects fascinating, but rather because I understood there was a purpose behind them. They stood for something. They had meaning to me and to the world around me then, and they still do today.
I have come to rely a great deal on history to reinforce my points of view, to give me comfort in uncertain times and to remind me that there is still work to be done.
Anyone who reads my posts can see that I invoke a lot of history in my writing. Consequently, I have been accused by other bloggers of living in the past. Unfortunately, they see only that I write about the past and not that I am trying to apply the past to the present.
The truth is I live very much in the present. I have a great understanding of the issues of the day and I have sound opinions on most of them. I recognize the challenges we are facing today as well as those ahead of us. I see where we have made mistakes and where we continue to make them.
I am much more three-dimensional than my critics give me credit for, because I invoke the past to help me through the present and to prepare me for the future.
But if living in the past means reflecting on what was, then I am guilty as charged, because I do this a lot.
When people today look to the government to solve their problems, I want to tell them, “No, solve your own problems. That’s what our ancestors did.”
To which I am usually rebuked with something like this: “But we live in an entirely different time, with different needs, different issues and in a different culture. Our ancestors did things on their own because they had to in order to survive. We don’t.”
Admittedly, this is a good rebuttal. However, it misses the point entirely. Based on the past, and the history of what has already happened, I am convinced that the human spirit transcends the variables of changing times. Because the Wright Brothers successfully flew the Kitty Hawk when nobody else believed they could; because Henry Ford produced automobiles for the common man when others thought it would put him out of business; because Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, phonograph and motion picture (among many other inventions crucial to the present) when no one said he would; and because President Abraham Lincoln preserved the Union when all seemed lost, I believe that a person facing today’s problems can persevere because of the remarkable buoyancy of the human spirit.
Human strengths and weaknesses tend to be consistently the same regardless of time period, culture, issues or needs. There has been wickedness and righteousness, avarice and charity, foolishness and wisdom, ruthlessness and kindness, corruption and honesty, evil and good, defeat and victory, and tragedy and triumph existing in one form or another throughout the history of human civilizations. These traits don’t change just because the times do.
All that changes are our perceptions and points of view.
And this is precisely why I am so passionate about history. I can see where the good and bad of past human experiences can be applied to the present and in the future. Because of this, I believe we can overcome our personal, individual obstacles just as those before us did. We can rectify our mistakes and move on. We can do what has been done before. We can duplicate the successes and failures of the past. And we can achieve great things today just as great things were achieved yesterday.
I don’t want to end up like my critics, who would dismiss history as only a subject of study, and do not regard it as the object lesson that it is. History is not something merely to read about. It is a skill and a discipline designed to be absorbed because of the lessons within that can be applied to the here and now.
Those who see history as a marker having been passed tend to make decisions based on their perceptions. They fail to see history as a guide for either how to or how not to do something. Instead, they act on perception rather than prescription. Not too much unlike winging a recipe instead of following it to the letter; or estimating the amount of medicine needed as opposed to following the prescription or directions. Winging it might seem like more fun, but more mistakes are bound to be made this way. There’s a reason why prescriptions and directions exist; because of mistakes that were made in the past.
Without more than a little regard for history one is bound to make more mistakes, because precedents would otherwise be ignored. If we don’t learn from our mistakes, then we are liable to repeat them. That is the essence of Santayana’s sage advice and the reason why I try to follow it so religiously.
But just because I use history as a benchmark does not mean I live in the past. There is a big difference between living in the past and being the past. The latter requires that we live in the present and be acutely aware of what’s going on around us. Being the past also means regarding history enough to learn the lessons that are there to teach us.
Being the past means that I try to learn from history, so I can avoid making the same mistakes twice and steer clear of those mistakes that others before me made. Being the past means recognizing that what had once been done before can be done again; that there are parallels to human behavior throughout history, regardless of the changes of time; and that what we do or don’t do today because of what we learn from history can have a profound impact on our future.
Being the past means being a whole, three-dimensional person who understands the relationship between past, present and future. It is unhealthy—and unwise—to be too much one way or another.
Thanks to history and my reverence for it, I have a compass to guide me through life’s murky quagmire. It won’t keep me from making mistakes or poor decisions, but it is there for me to use any time and any where, regardless of whether or not I have the wisdom to use it.