History

It's possible that I watched the Lion King too much as a kid.  My little brother was obsessed with it, and would watch it over and over.  I too loved that movie, and there is one line that stuck with me.  

I try as often as possible to learn from the past. I wish to change things, make it so that the past isn't repeated. A huge part of my therapy is to look at my own past.  Those lessons I took with me as a child that don't serve me are the things I am addressing. I'm trying to learn from what happened to me when I had no control.  Instead of moving forward with pain, or running from difficult memories and triggers, I am caring for myself in different ways than I have in the past.

The significant challenge for me is that I live in the United States of America, and I see that as a country we are not learning from the past.  People on the senate floor might as well be using the speeches from the people that stood in their location 50 years ago.  

I worry that many Americans, or possibly people of the world as a whole, do not know their history.  Yet, how shall we teach it to them?  How will we make it so that they can move forward without repeating the mistakes of the past?

Conversations with JFK by Michael O'Brien provides an interesting way to show history.  This book is formatted like an interview, just like one you would read in a zine.  This format makes it an easy read.  Also, it is well researched. Though the words of "JFK" in the book are missing that certain charisma and comfortable certainty of the actual JFK, it is still interesting. I would recommend it to anyone with even the smallest interest in history or changing our current repetitions of it.