I’m a lucky man. A lucky, lucky man.

I discovered history before it was too late.

When I was younger — much, much younger — I hated history. Hated it. Thought that history was just a bunch of old guys who didn’t know any better and that we people of the now are just so much more knowledgable.

What a duh I was.

I’ve since learned that history is made by people exactly like us.

I read John Lewis’s Wallking with the Wind, and I loved it. It moved me terribly. I fell completely in love with David McCullough’s Truman. Also his The Great Bridge.

People like David McCullough, Ron Chernow, and Annette Gordon-Reed bring those old folks to life, and in doing so you realize that they were like us, that we deal today with the same kinds of problems we’ve always dealt with and that our leaders have the same strengths and weaknesses as did Lincoln, Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton, and the rest of our founding fathers.

And when you realize that, these old folks become alive and become your friends.
I’m so terribly glad I “discovered” history. I hope one day everyone does.