History's story

This book by Gaddis has revealed, in little golden nuggetty moments, some amazingly liberating ideas I never knew I had. Isn't that the way sometimes? You read something, or someone says something in coversation, and there's this 'paul on the road to Damascus' moment of revelation. I knew that! I knew that! Why didn't I know I knew that?

Well I don't know the answer to that question, but it's got me thinking.

In the meantime, the latest revelation of historical narrative, i.e. the stories used to tell history, are simulations. They're ideas used to link interdependendt eventsso they make some sort of sense. They're based on available information - which is necessarily selective - and on the perspective of the story-teller - which is also necessarily selective. All of which doesn't add up to the conclusion that it's all relative, and anyone can make up whatever they like, and expect it to be as 'true' as the next person's. But it does recognise the huge diversity of valid perspectives on history that everyone has the opportunity to express.

And then there's this other thing that brings history into the very real everyday present, which makes this conclusion all the more liberating. We have already learned and expressed history after history in our lives. Every day, we live in the present by recreating certain histories or by not recreating them. We develop a new perspective - we might call it learning, or even unlearning; or we accpet without question other histories, which may be ours or others. We have the opportunity to express a new version of history, our history, our story, every day. And this is potentially every bit as valid and interesting, and a part of our collective history as anyone else doing the same thing.

Expressing ourselves every day, in whatever we do, is an act of liberation as well as of creation. By doing so, we create a collective story of the world, a collective story that is dominated by those who express themselves, and which is missing the those who do not. But expression of our stories is an act of liberation because it frees us to learn and unlearn from the perspective of who we are and where we are now in the present.

Expressing ourselves, equal emphasis on each word. The personal act of expression; the expression of our genuine selves. Expression is action, whatever action or behaviour: talking, working, painting, writing, helping, walking acting, and so on and so on. Ourselves is what? Who we are, now, today, in our milieu, our world. Each expression changes us, if it is genuine, and so each such expression is new, unique, and creates both the present and history.

Well you could knock me down with a feather...

Sacrificing to succeed 2

Here we go again ... The RAF Race Across America team ... Whether or not it's true, we're told that to succeed at this level, you have to eat, sleep, breathe and live 'bike'. there is no room in your life for anything else.

And yet, despite the commitment needed to train for so many hours every week, and the need to manage your diet and sleep patterns, there are huge swathes of a week for other things. Time for the family, for the garden, for cooking, for friends and so on and so on.

Where does this idea come from that success is exclusive?