Tomorrow is my 26th birthday. I will not be celebrating it this year, not because I am ashamed of my age, I love getting older, but because 26 is just a random number in my head. Once I reach 30, I will party.
Anyway, back to my subject. Hopefully last week's post wasn't too much of a turn off. I will try and talk about more cheerful reasons why history is so important. I will try.
As I mentioned in my post's last informative paragraph, I am extremely fascinated by monarchs and their lives. I enjoy watching documentaries, films and TV shows about people who once existed. And it's even more entertaining if they were someone powerful. Like a queen or a king. I know that most TV shows and film make up a lot of their content, just to appear more enticing, but luckily for us humans there's this magical thing called the Internet. And in this magical world of wonders and horrors, you can read about almost anything. I have Wikipediad and researched a lot in my years. I have even found and purchased books on subjects that interest me.
For example, I have a whole collection of books about Antiquity. I love the myths and gods and philosophers of that time. My mother supports my insanity by buying me books about it sometimes. I honestly have a special part of the bookshelf for just that subject. And I'm not only interested in Ancient Greek. All religions before Christianity (in Europe) are fascinating to me. For years I have wanted a tattoo of Sleipnir, Odin's eight legged horse. It symbolises travel and adventure to me. Something I enjoy, as you might have noticed. But I am a lazy person and have yet to fulfil this little dream of mine.
Another subject I am crazy about is religion. I know I wrote that I can't pin a religious label on myself, as I don't agree with any religion 100%. But, if you think about it, you can't learn history without learning about religion. It's one of the biggest reasons why nations conquer others or why we are currently living in a constant storm of wars and conflicts. I mean, once Christianity was established, they didn't waste much time before they tried to force it upon everyone. The Crusades took place during 1095 and 1291. That's almost 200 years. Nowadays the Islamic countries are actually only trying to do the same. Please don't lynch me over this thought, but my theology teacher did point out that Islam is 600 years younger than Christianity, it's actually to be expected that they would want to spread their religion with force as Christians did. Just a little point I like to make when people blindly hate on Islam. I don't condemn a whole culture and religion based on the actions of fanatics. If I did, how could I live in my comfortable European Christian fantasy land? Yeah, think about that.
All I'm saying is that we should all learn about religions as much as possible. I live in a country where the majority of our population doesn't affiliate with any specific religion. Due to this abnormality, people are afraid of theology being taught in school. I mean I took that class three times in school and not once did I feel as if I was being brainwashed into Christianity or any other religion. It just gave me more information to use as I decide how I want to live my life. We should embrace all the knowledge that is offered to us, not shy away from it.
Moving on from that point, I also like to read about people who have lived in the not too distant past. I was obsessed for a while about the Kray Twins, who were these East End gangsters in London in the 1950s and 1960s. I bought so many books about them. Books they have written about themselves, showing them off in a good light, and books other people have written about them claiming the opposite. I guess my obsession began when I saw Legend, where Tom Hardy played the twins. I do love me some Tom Hardy.
If I were to talk about monarchs and their spouses, as I promised in my previous post, I have to say that Queen Victoria and Prince Albert are my favourites at the moment. Especially the prince. It's so interesting to think about a man, who marries a queen of the greatest nation, in a time when women had no rights to vote even. How much pride did he have to swallow? And then there's the fact that they had nine children. NINE!? Nowadays that sounds insane. Prince Albert was a man who looked into innovation and technology. He seemed to care about the British people, even though he was German. I think his life story is interesting. That's why I bought a book about him. Yet to read it, will talk more about this matter once I do.
History is such a vast subject, there's something for everyone. You could be interested in wars and dictators, historical figures or people's day-to-day life. History can offer you the knowledge you desire. I sound like I'm making a commercial for History. "If you want an interesting future, be sure to turn up your ears and pay attention, History will take you through past years and give you the show of your life!" Corny, I know.
I feel as if I have written down the most important reasons I have for learning about history. It's important to remember that everything that has happened in the past has shaped our present. And what we have learnt from it and use in our present will shape the future. I am just amazingly annoying today. Laugh!
I will leave you with my previous thought. Maybe it makes History more appealing to you. Maybe not. At least I made an effort, right?
Adios,
Regina.
No comments:
Post a Comment