You never truly know something until you've experienced it; you never truly feel the depth of an emotion unless it has affected you directly. You can imagine and you can try to understand what it is like but that doesn't matter.
It doesn't matter because it won't come close to that raw feeling, that real experience, that shock and that anxiety of having to wait for time to heal the pain and bring things back to the way they were before.
Every so often I discover a truth, something that I know and have read about but never stopped to look at in perspective. I try to imagine such circumstances. I try to picture my life, as comfortable as it is now, come to a halt because of some occurrence that is larger than I am. Something governed by a greater power, whether it be a natural disaster or a political regime such as communism, fascism. Toronto had a small glimpse of chaos this summer during the G20 protests but that was like a small rain storm compared to frevelent storms occurring in different parts of the world on a daily basis. How ignorant are we to these things? How ignorant are we to the past, our personal histories and the lives of our ancestors who "fought for our freedom". We here that so often.. freedom. But is it?
Stories of my great grandparents re-surface here and then but it is my curious nature to dig deeper and find the truth. The textbooks don't always reflect the stories of all the people.. and our grandfolks are the ones with the real encounters. So history.. it is not just a boring subject. It is a reflection of who we are.. and only when it directly affects or defines us is when we start to appreciate its worth.
I guess my main point in terms of history is that although we can't live our lives rethinking or living by the past, we can not ignore it nor forget about it completely either.
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It is a recurrent subject, history. I appreciate it because as you've stated, it defines. It holds truths that are factual but with proof which makes it important.
What happened during the G20 protests, the eventful part of it was brought on through ignorance; the police brutality shouldn't have happened the way it did but then again, with cowards.....
i do believe wholeheartedly, that there were peaceful protesters protesting for a reason. For they understand the way to be heard is through voice and not violence.
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