Why so many people groan when they're told to read a history book, and what they're missing out on.
Everyone knows the pain of researching and analysing word after word, trying to find the sentences to adhere your writing together, but not everyone knows there's a way to diminish that pain and make it disappear in a heartbeat.
The answer? Everything.
Everything...
Okay so I know that sounds ridiculous, you obviously can't read everything, but what you can read, is a lot. I mean, mountains and mountains of books, hundreds of articles, blogs like this one right here. You could read forever, and still not know what you need, but that's the point, no one will ever know everything about anything, so why try?
Instead, let someone passionate and willing to desperately scan through books and articles hoping to find some snippet of information, someone like me, do the work for you.
History, the murky lake of nothingness.
"Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history." - Lincoln
History is everywhere, in everything. From the tree's journey from magnificent leaves to useful paper, to the rotting bricks of that old haunted house, there is no escaping the fact that life existed before you, and that it will exist after you. Scary, yes, but none-the-less true.
The past is a pit, filled with facts and figure and POVs, all mixed together, murky from years of bias and misrepresentation, which makes History one of the most defeating and difficult subjects to study. Staring down into a lake full of murky information, knowing you'll probably come back empty handed, and then still casting your fishing rod takes a lot of courage, and if you've managed it, I congratulate you. Words become distorted, opinions mistaken for facts, endings switched, its tricky stuff to untangle.
The problem with everything on planet (and every other planet for that matter) having a complex and indescribable history, is that, that's a lot of history. There is no bottom to the depths of history, no end point of the universe, and that presents a problem. This problem, is why so many people take one look at a history textbook and think "not a chance." without even considering what they could learn about the world around them after simply reading one page. And don't get me wrong, there has been many a time when I've said the same, desperate for my deepest passion to be something with just a little less reading, but there's a solution.
The solution
Good news! There's a solution. Well... kind of a solution.
Persistence. I know, I know, but hear me out for a second.
Imagine you're playing golf - proper golf, not that mediocre pitch-and-put down the road - and you've never played before, sure someone gave you a crash course about an hour ago, but until this moment you've never swung a club at a ball.
You take the shot, and...
You miss the ball.
Its infuriating, because your brain says you should know this, even though you know its entirely unreasonable to be an expert already. So you want to give up.
But, if you find the right club, and start small, allowing yourself to fail, you'll improve. Sure, it'll be slower than you wanted but you do improve.
I know you know this is important in all aspects of life, but its even more so in History, because of that deep ominous clouded mess of words.
But if you slowly pick your way out, using blogs like this that make history understandable and comprehensive, you'll watch yourself swim through that lake of nothingness, and discover that actually history isn't nothing, and that it isn't everything, its a comfortable balance of what helps you grow, and what doesn't.
And that - *cue dramatic entrance consisting of jazz hands and a fan-fare* - is where I come in. I aim to become a source of readable and enjoyable history, somewhere to discover more about not just the facts and figure, but the people who lived through the best and worst times in history. I hope, to drag out and untangle the hidden and overlooked gems of the entire history of the world. Ambitious and entirely unachievable, I know.
So sit back, relax, and let me immediately panic as I realize what I'm about to do.
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