Sing a Song of History

“In fourteen hundred ninety-two
Columbus sailed the ocean blue.
He had three ships and left from Spain;
He sailed through sunshine, wind and rain.”

There were different ways to learn about history. And never underestimate it, history is important, to each of us, in our own way. Knowing what has come before, can also be amusing. When my own son was young, I recall him watching a cartoon with some friends of the ‘animated’ Chipmunks (The drawn version, not the computer graphics of today’s films). Involving a small group of chipmunks who were able to talk, and of course ‘sing’. My son and his young friends were watching the program with a parent present (something we always believed was important to assist with understanding concepts of what they were watching) and of course, while the chipmunks  were singing a song, I joined in the words (not quite with the same high pitch of the chipmunks I will add). Without realising it at first, I sang along, as he and his two friends turned to look at me with open mouths. I realised they were staring and stopped singing. “That’s amazing” his young friend said. ‘You guessed all the words”.

That is a simple example of what happens when you don’t know history. The song of course, was a 1960’s hit which I was familiar with. (Not saying that I first heard it broadcast or played in the 60’s but certainly over the years). I recall saying to them something convincing such as, “Parents know everything.” (I wish). No doubt they proved that saying wrong in the next few years. Or at least, if getting older now, as they are, they realise we knew more than they gave us credit for. While parents may not know everything (which is probably advisable), the possession of experience should never be underestimated. Experience from living, education, and the mistakes we make as parents, which ultimately shape our history and our abilities. In that way our histories definitely influence those who come after us.

The more one is aware of history of course, and it’s influence, the better your opinions (of which we all have many) are, and the better informed the facts in your discussions can be. It is the losing of the general knowledge today, which bothers me the most. The apparent lack of a collective, acquired knowledge, learnt from multiple sources and verified (very important that!), for which people come to understand their information and current situation and place. Basing all knowledge on one piece of presented information, such as local news or worse, a movie, is a very unreliable method of information gathering and information acquisition. Unfortunately this method seems to becoming more common amongst the younger people today. A recent, very, very, scary example of this lack of real knowledge, apparently by current, mainly younger generations than my own (although hard to tell as the information came from technology sources used by many of all ages), were all of the tweets concerning the Titanic celebrations. large numbers of people ‘tweeting’ each other with tweets such as…. ‘OMG. The Titanic was real, not just a James Cameron Movie. I didn’t realise”. See article.

(Continued tomorrow)