History.
I write a lot about history. It has to happen this way. I mean, I can’t predict the future, so writing about it would be out.
And writing about the present would be boring. Like Jack Nicholson in The Shining. I’d just be sitting here at my keyboard writing:
“I’m writing. I’m writing. I’m writing. I’m writing. I’m writing. I’m writing. I’m writing. I’m writing. I’m writing. I’m writing. I’m writing. I’m writing. I’m writing. I’m writing. I’m writing. I’m writing. I’m writing. I’m writing. I’m writing. I’m writing. I’m writing.”
So instead, I write a lot about the past. The things that have happened, both near and far.
Many people have written about it, too. They’ve considered its implications. As David McCullough said,
“History is not merely a record of events; it is a guide to navigation in perilous times. History is who we are and why we are the way we are.”
But history, as we know it, comes from our memories and the memories of others. And then it is written. Mark Twain once said, “The very ink with which history is written is merely fluid prejudice.”
So. With that in mind.
If you could rewrite anything in history and make it change from that day forward — any history: any day, any event, any episode — what bit of history would you rewrite, and why?
Rewrite the history. It is up to you.
