The Stories Those Walls Could Tell...
So it's been a little while since I've blogged, and all I can say is, well... life. 😂 In my head I always think of January and February as the slow season and down time, since it's the time of year that is most quiet for me at work. But, then I remember it's the most quiet time of the year for me, and I should make the most of it and get busy livin'. And, since I have a list of things I want to accomplish this year, it's even more true now!
I've been thinking about blog topics this week, and I decide we're going to have a little chitty-chat about history, what it means to me, and what makes my wee little heart cry. We all have the value systems we do because of what we've been taught, or something we've experienced, or a combination of the two, or simply because we read about it in some article someone shared on Facebook and now suddenly decided it's something we should believe in (aka all those millennial "influencers" I've heard about). Regardless, we develop a values system as we grow up, and refine it as we become adults with knowledge and education and life experience. One of my many values relates to history: I believe that it is so important to preserve our past and to maintain this country's historical structures.
It makes my heart hurt when I see or hear about a dilapidated building with a storied past being razed to the ground to make way for a parking garage or a shiny new modernist building. Progress and change are two very different things. Just look at most other countries that have been able to maintain their past, rehabilitate old structures, and yet weave in 21st century progress and infrastructure. It is possible. You can have progress without having so much change. Don't get me wrong... I'm absolutely not saying change is bad. It's not. Change can be good. I'm just saying I don't think we have to tear down the old in order to make progress. We should be keeping and restoring the old, because the craftsmanship is unmatched today, and just think about the stories those old walls could tell!
I'm a firm believer in that you cannot know where you're going if you don't know
where you've been. We are who we are because of our past, whether individually or collectively. American society is what it is today because of our history, and we have to understand what built us in order to understand who we are and who we will/can become, and who/what we no longer want to be. And while we might not always agree or believe that something in history was right or just, it happened, and it has made us who we are, and we have to acknowledge that while moving forward.
Our past has not always been glitzy or glamorous, but it wrote that story that is America. History is important, and it helps shape our identity. And before you ceremoniously fake-gag at that statement, my mother has a history degree, and I have spent my entire life hearing that, 😂. She has taught me to appreciate history, and I'm always trying to absorb the local historical timeline anywhere I go. I also do it wherever I live (I have my background as a features writer to thank for that), which is why people always tell me that I must have been a tour guide or a travel agent in a previous life, haha! I also grew up in Texas, and "Remember the Alamo" is forever engrained in my brain. You can be damn sure that building ISN'T going anywhere. It's safe to say appreciating history has been drilled into my brain since my earliest memories!
This is why I love to visit places like Savannah, Georgia, a community that has made way for modern times while maintaining its storied past. In the 1950s, a group of garden club ladies successfully launched a grass-roots effort to save the city's beautiful squares, buildings, mansions, etc. They had the means, the money, and the ear of the powers that be, but they still had to work hard to achieve their goals. Without them, Savannah would not be what it is today, and Forrest Gump would not have had a beautiful park bench on which to sit and tell his story. I wandered those streets last month in awe, sometimes closing my eyes and dreaming about what it must have been like to live there pre-war. If only I could travel back in time...
There are other communities I've lived in or visited that evoke these same feelings for me. Winchester, Virginia was home for 9 years, and it was one of the
most contested towns in the confederacy, changing hands more than 70 times. It's historic courthouse has been maintained, and you can even see the signatures of prisoners and hospital patients from the Civil War on a section of wall that was unearthed during renovations! There are towns in Wales that have kept their stone castles amidst tall glass buildings, communities in Malta that still function within ancient walled cities, and Peruvian mountain villages that maintain their customary lifestyle while bringing in ecotourism to help feed their families as climate change wreaks havoc on their way of life.
Our culture is woven into our history, and when you tear down or destroy what was once an important part of your story, you begin to lose a sense of yourself, I think. We can have progress and a modern way of living while still maintaining a part of our past. Let's stop tearing down every old building, and put some effort into preserving our past!
I've been thinking about blog topics this week, and I decide we're going to have a little chitty-chat about history, what it means to me, and what makes my wee little heart cry. We all have the value systems we do because of what we've been taught, or something we've experienced, or a combination of the two, or simply because we read about it in some article someone shared on Facebook and now suddenly decided it's something we should believe in (aka all those millennial "influencers" I've heard about). Regardless, we develop a values system as we grow up, and refine it as we become adults with knowledge and education and life experience. One of my many values relates to history: I believe that it is so important to preserve our past and to maintain this country's historical structures.
It makes my heart hurt when I see or hear about a dilapidated building with a storied past being razed to the ground to make way for a parking garage or a shiny new modernist building. Progress and change are two very different things. Just look at most other countries that have been able to maintain their past, rehabilitate old structures, and yet weave in 21st century progress and infrastructure. It is possible. You can have progress without having so much change. Don't get me wrong... I'm absolutely not saying change is bad. It's not. Change can be good. I'm just saying I don't think we have to tear down the old in order to make progress. We should be keeping and restoring the old, because the craftsmanship is unmatched today, and just think about the stories those old walls could tell!
I'm a firm believer in that you cannot know where you're going if you don't know
 |
| Photo courtesy of thealamo.org |
Our past has not always been glitzy or glamorous, but it wrote that story that is America. History is important, and it helps shape our identity. And before you ceremoniously fake-gag at that statement, my mother has a history degree, and I have spent my entire life hearing that, 😂. She has taught me to appreciate history, and I'm always trying to absorb the local historical timeline anywhere I go. I also do it wherever I live (I have my background as a features writer to thank for that), which is why people always tell me that I must have been a tour guide or a travel agent in a previous life, haha! I also grew up in Texas, and "Remember the Alamo" is forever engrained in my brain. You can be damn sure that building ISN'T going anywhere. It's safe to say appreciating history has been drilled into my brain since my earliest memories!
 |
| Photo courtesy of visitsavannah.com |
There are other communities I've lived in or visited that evoke these same feelings for me. Winchester, Virginia was home for 9 years, and it was one of the
 |
| Photo courtesy of oldtownwinchesterva.com |
Our culture is woven into our history, and when you tear down or destroy what was once an important part of your story, you begin to lose a sense of yourself, I think. We can have progress and a modern way of living while still maintaining a part of our past. Let's stop tearing down every old building, and put some effort into preserving our past!
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