War Then and Now

I don't know if this happens to anyone but me but sometimes I just have to slow way down, take a deep breath, and p a u s e.

Doesn't matter so much if these are good times or bad times, because everything is relative. I'm reading a history of World War I these days, which was a very bad time for millions of people.

It's awful to read about the senseless slaughter of millions of people. But much of history is replete with such accountings.

I love history, not so much when it's about wars, but you can't avoid war in history. What I love is the context -- the economics, the politics, the personalities, and the astonishing (to me) details of daily life.

People lived so differently then than they do now, no matter where in the world you consider to focus. The little Belgian town devoted to art, literature and culture that was demolished by an early German assault serves as an object lesson to all who would preserve human knowledge for the ages.

Everything comes and everything goes.

Including, most certainly, us.

All we have is now. Make the most of it!

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