Beautiful essay! You are so right; we are so caught up in the "important people" of the past that we forget about everyone else. Their lives may not be as flashy, but they also lived a human existence. We'll done!
So incredibly interesting, and as others have already said, so beautifully composed and written! Thank you, James, you are a lifeline to actual (as opposed to data-driven) living.
A lovely discovery to start my day - I did not know that the words sung so beautifully in “On Children” by Sweet Honey in the Rock were lines from the poet Kahlil Gibran - thank you for that!
As usual, you have pulled my head out of the oblivion we call current news, and refocused my attention to the affairs of the heart - a timeless human endeavor. Thank you James.
Thank you. Lovely to read about the lives of people from long ago. For me, to read about the reasons people were absent is way more engaging and enlightening than knowing some king won a battle in a certain year.
"Art has been passed on that way for at least thirteen thousand years, by people lifting the ones they love toward a tomorrow they will never see, and each of us is someone’s tomorrow…"
We shall never know the immensity of the footprints we leave and the ripples that emanate from them?
Thank you James for sharing these historical treasures with us. I learn and grow from engaging with your thoughts and images.
“Art comes in all forms.” I've heard this countless times and it is true. We need to get back to ourselves and see everyone. Not just the big name ones.
History is really just a collection of people's stories, and many experiences are universal. The past and the future are "foreign countries" in that we can't return to what was or go forward to what will be. The present is all we have so we need not take it for granted. Time is a bittersweet thing.
I think what gets printed is a reflection of the publishing costs. When all books were transcribed by hand by monks, the only available audience was religious scholars and aristocracy and so that is who the writers addressed. There was no reason to publish anything concerning the 'common folks'.
Gutenberg invented moveable type, but printing was still a slow, expensive process. Still, it lead to a Bible written in the native tongue, not Latin, intended for the more 'common folk'. Not just any common folk, because the cost was still high.
As printing became more efficient, more books were printed and distributed to lower income people. That meant that writing could be aimed at them. The aristocracy was no longer the prime market, regular people were. The Age of Enlightenment was born as much from affordable publishing as from a shift in anybody's thinking.
Mark Twain would be unheard of today, if printing had been too expensive for plain folks to afford. He wrote about those plain folks, and they could afford to read about themselves, by the millions.
Today, anybody is a publisher that wants to be a punisher. There is no real cost. I don't think we can yet project how that is going to affect the customer base. But it will surely change.
Absolutely love this! Some things of the human condition never change and are endearing even after thousands of years. Everyday life is sometimes more interesting than the more notable ones in history.
Your interesting and comprehensive presentation of this subject, James, allows us to take a deep dive into a distant past—one that is surely unknown to many of us and truly full of fascinating details well worth discovering. The various topics and stories you have discussed in such great detail help us realize just how grateful we should be to our predecessors—pioneers of the future—for having built the present for us, and, indeed, the future as well.
This is yet another beautiful and poignant posting by James. I now have in my head a lyric sung by the present day composer and wicked-good pianist Bruce Hornsby.
🎵That’s just the way it is. Some things will never change. That’s just the way it is….
Paraphrasing a Princeton Triangle Club song from the ‘80s “…leaving behind the work of art that I sign will mean my life will go on even long after I’ve gone…”
Beautiful essay! You are so right; we are so caught up in the "important people" of the past that we forget about everyone else. Their lives may not be as flashy, but they also lived a human existence. We'll done!
So incredibly interesting, and as others have already said, so beautifully composed and written! Thank you, James, you are a lifeline to actual (as opposed to data-driven) living.
A lovely discovery to start my day - I did not know that the words sung so beautifully in “On Children” by Sweet Honey in the Rock were lines from the poet Kahlil Gibran - thank you for that!
As usual, you have pulled my head out of the oblivion we call current news, and refocused my attention to the affairs of the heart - a timeless human endeavor. Thank you James.
Thank you. Lovely to read about the lives of people from long ago. For me, to read about the reasons people were absent is way more engaging and enlightening than knowing some king won a battle in a certain year.
Ah, James, this made me cry.
"Art has been passed on that way for at least thirteen thousand years, by people lifting the ones they love toward a tomorrow they will never see, and each of us is someone’s tomorrow…"
We shall never know the immensity of the footprints we leave and the ripples that emanate from them?
Thank you James for sharing these historical treasures with us. I learn and grow from engaging with your thoughts and images.
I enjoyed every word! This essay made my day so much better.
“Art comes in all forms.” I've heard this countless times and it is true. We need to get back to ourselves and see everyone. Not just the big name ones.
History is really just a collection of people's stories, and many experiences are universal. The past and the future are "foreign countries" in that we can't return to what was or go forward to what will be. The present is all we have so we need not take it for granted. Time is a bittersweet thing.
I think what gets printed is a reflection of the publishing costs. When all books were transcribed by hand by monks, the only available audience was religious scholars and aristocracy and so that is who the writers addressed. There was no reason to publish anything concerning the 'common folks'.
Gutenberg invented moveable type, but printing was still a slow, expensive process. Still, it lead to a Bible written in the native tongue, not Latin, intended for the more 'common folk'. Not just any common folk, because the cost was still high.
As printing became more efficient, more books were printed and distributed to lower income people. That meant that writing could be aimed at them. The aristocracy was no longer the prime market, regular people were. The Age of Enlightenment was born as much from affordable publishing as from a shift in anybody's thinking.
Mark Twain would be unheard of today, if printing had been too expensive for plain folks to afford. He wrote about those plain folks, and they could afford to read about themselves, by the millions.
Today, anybody is a publisher that wants to be a punisher. There is no real cost. I don't think we can yet project how that is going to affect the customer base. But it will surely change.
Absolutely love this! Some things of the human condition never change and are endearing even after thousands of years. Everyday life is sometimes more interesting than the more notable ones in history.
Your interesting and comprehensive presentation of this subject, James, allows us to take a deep dive into a distant past—one that is surely unknown to many of us and truly full of fascinating details well worth discovering. The various topics and stories you have discussed in such great detail help us realize just how grateful we should be to our predecessors—pioneers of the future—for having built the present for us, and, indeed, the future as well.
Beautiful thoughts and perfect execution. Thank you for your hard work and inspired thinking.
This is yet another beautiful and poignant posting by James. I now have in my head a lyric sung by the present day composer and wicked-good pianist Bruce Hornsby.
🎵That’s just the way it is. Some things will never change. That’s just the way it is….
But don’t you believe it.🎵
Paraphrasing a Princeton Triangle Club song from the ‘80s “…leaving behind the work of art that I sign will mean my life will go on even long after I’ve gone…”