Tuesday, August 4, 2020

A Good Read and A Quiet Place

I am a collector of old cameras and books.  That's why you often see them featuring as props in my photos.  This particular camera has been in my possession for several years and I would love nothing more than to find some film and try my hand at developing my own photos from it.
The books are easier to find than cameras and I have an equal mix of fiction and nonfiction although I find the nonfiction much more interesting.  A history professor of mine once said you should never trust any source who wasn't really there to witness an event.
Taking that message to heart, I have found marked differences between what text books and history books have to say about certain pivotal moments and what the people who actually lived through it saw and felt.
I try not to read it in terms of good/bad or right/wrong.  Instead I try to view it through their eyes, especially when reading antique science and medical books.  They're excited about new possibilities.  They don't know where it's all heading even if I do.
What I enjoy most about looking back through the eyes of those who history is not their interpretations well after the fact, it's their raw, in the moment, first impressions.  I see their fears, their hopes, their apprehension, and their arrogance.  Some of it leads to victory and some to defeat.
Looking back it's easy to say this was wisdom or that was folly, but in that moment all they could do was guess and hope.  And history is all the more human for reading it this way......
Today the warm sunshine was delightful in the morning but oppressive by noon.  While I love to find a sunny spot to curl up and read, I definitely appreciate being out of the heat with a good book to read.
Maybe it's just the summer heat talking, but I've decided to change up the blog a little more.  You may have noticed that I'm in the process of creating posts with more substance, make it a little more about thoughts and observations and a little less about shopping and fashion and see how that goes.  I suppose history will decide.

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