Consider
the remarkable life you lead. You might not consider yourself extraordinary or
exceptional, but if only for a moment consider exactly what you are. A
wonderful creation that thinks, analyzes, records, and creates. An amazing
human being that has been carefully made and that is constantly being remodeled
and refashioned. It's a little known fact that every three seconds fifty
thousand cells in your body die and are replaced. And from the start of that
sentence to the end, fifty thousand more cells died and were replaced - it's
happening constantly day and night. It's a wonder you're so tired all the time!
And quite
possibly one of the more remarkable things about you and me, being who we are,
is the way each of us is constantly creating history with every single one of
those cells that dies and is remade. Every step we step, every breath we
breathe, every blink we blink, every second of every day is intricately
affecting the world in which we live, penning down the words that will go down
to affect our children and our children's children, and our children's
children's children, and so on. Just as Mr. James Baldwin states in his essay, White Man's Guilt, “…the
great force of history comes from the fact that we carry it within us, are
unconsciously controlled by it in many ways, and history is literally present
in all that we do.”
I find it
awing when I consider the immense weight of each of my decisions and every
occurrence in my life. Think about it for a moment with me, and perhaps you can
relate your own situational anecdote:
As I left
for home one weekend, I found myself experiencing some car issues. If my car
wouldn't have had trouble starting, I wouldn't have been held up for a few
extra minutes as I pumped the gas in frustration and I might have gotten the
headstart I wanted in traveling to my destination. However, as I finally coaxed
the vehicle to turn over to start and began on my way, I saw ahead in the
distance what appeared to be a minor wreck happening before my eyes as a trailing
car rear-ended the car ahead due to an abrupt halt.
Consider for a short moment if I wouldn't have had
such a bothersome dilemma in starting my own vehicle - I could've had a much more
terrible car-debacle upon my hands. Which would probably put that day down in
my own history as one of the worst yet. Now consider hypothetically if Abraham
Lincoln had experienced an aggravating quandary in his life on his way to
deliver the Gettysburg Address in the dedication of Soldiers' National Cemetery
in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. American history would be missing one of its most profound
and dire speeches in the story of our nation! The underlying point is the
impact that each situation, decision, and thought in our lives has on not only
ourselves, but the tapestry of history upon which we write. The tapestry that
as Mr. Baldwin describes, "we carry within us," and by which we are,
"unconsciously controlled by it," and which truly is indescribably
and remarkably present in our past, present, and future. The story that is
changing and being rewritten with each perishing cell within us, but that is
penned in an even more beautiful tone with every small, miniscule cell to replenish
and remake. History, the ideal by which we all can find our place and discover
our common thread to understanding, is by far the most stunning and delightful creation
with which we have the liberty to work together to inscribe upon the hearts of
the forthcoming generations.
