Ashes to Ashes

Isn't history…enchanting? mesmerizing? simply captivating? I can't believe some people (many people) find it boring! That anyone would say "who cares, it happened ages ago!" I mean, isn't the fact that it happened ages ago a fun thing? I do understand that many historians have taken it upon themselves to bore people with long words and that many professors like to turn history class into test of memory. But, for me, history class is like story time! I LOVE it!

 Now, aren't those some enticing books? (Image)

So, I had my first history lecture in college today and while I was viewing a clip on Mesopotamia, I ended up scrawling my deepest affections for history in my sketch book! Here's what I wrote…

Above: The doomed Romanov family. Ever heard of the
lost princess Anastasia? I just love looking into the
faces in old pictures, trying to imagine what went on
behind them! (Image)

I think my greatest connection to history—one that really grounds me and feels inherently familiar—is the inevitable. And that, of course, is that anyone who lives must also die. That everyone has a start and an end. And it is this inevitable that I feel is a connection between myself and any civilization that ever existed. That we all face what is perhaps the one fact of life: death. The fact that we are, ourselves, temporary, is incredibly humbling. Is it not? I actually don't find this depressing or scary at all! I find it a wonderful reminder to give myself the freedom to explore and do weird things. To do whatever makes me happy and to be as kind as possible because, in the end, we all face the same death. We all die. 

(Image)

Of course we all have legacies! And that is where history comes in. Perhaps, each of us does live on, in one way or another. Especially through our human successors. It is this cycle of life and death that, I feel, unites us with all our ancestors and even our future successors. 

Ashes to ashes. It is one of my favourite phrases and I choose to live with it in my mind. We all rise from this Earth to live out what may seem to be short and insignificant lives—whether we live out our lives in peaceful obscurity or pompous tumult is entirely dependant on ourselves and our circumstances. But, regardless of the lives we lead, we all return to our origin, the Earth. For it is this return to the Earth that ultimately unites all humans.

Having completed our vastly different lives, as important as they were to us and our contemporaries, we all do seem to become threads in an infinitely colourful tapestry of life. We all become a part of history. Ashes to ashes.

And that, dear blogosphere, is one of my reasons for loving and learning our collective history! So, if you'll excuse me now, I have got to get back to some daydreams of the past!

—Sabbie

P.S. I am sooo not a fangirl but I think this music video can speak volumes to all of us. It really reminds me of all the beautiful little details of my life that make it mine. We all have our own little histories! What makes yours?