What I love about Rome, and Italy in general, is that
history is all around you. You can look
around, take a seat, even lean against a wall and at some point a young centurion
had done exactly the same thing. For me,
holder of a history degree and self-admitted nerd, this is something I live for. But, history, with all its imagination
inducing potential, can serve, not to foster inspired leadership or
parenthetical phrases, but as a rallying point for mediocrity.
History is one of the most useful tools in creating the future. The present is predicated upon the past just
as the future is predicated upon the present.
But even the best tools can leave its users with stitches. Obsession with the past yields stagnation as
does ignorance of the past. Both are dangerous. By obsessing we distract ourselves from the
focus we ought to reserve for the future or set forth plans to regress to the past. Ignoring the past places blinders firmly over
our eyes and we make our way forward, without sight, stubbing our toes on the
corner of each piece of furniture before we eventually collapse.
Italy, for all the bad press the she gets, may stagnate for
many reasons but history is not necessarily one. Their long and varied past is celebrated for
what it was: a stepping stone to the modern world but not without its skeletons. Life goes on.
Italy could easily just sit back safe in knowledge that the Eternal City
is just that, Eternal. The efforts of
today, detrimental or positive, may have little bearing on the fact that the
Tiber will continue to snake through human habitation a thousand years from
now.
While traveling, or living for that matter, consider the
impact that history has on a place, its people, and their future.
**This theme will be expanded upon in time, and by expanded I mean that I'll actually come to a cohesive point.
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