31 Days of History Conclusion

For each of the last 31 days, I've highlighted some historical person, place or thing that has a local connection to the DC area. In closing this month long experiment, there are a couple of points I'd like to make.

First, history is not just some isolated, one-time event that happened a long time ago. I firmly believe that who we are is a result of all the things that have come before us--personal decisions by our family and ancestors, political decisions from national leaders, environmental events, etc etc. Obviously, there is a large degree of personal initiative, but we are heavily influenced by what has come before. When
I read history, recent or ancient, local or distant, I always look for the personal connection. If you dig deep enough, it's always there.

Second, people have told me that it's easy to find history since we live in DC, but not so easy elsewhere. I'd have to disagree---there are connections to the past everywhere, but we tend to overlook them when it's in our own backyard. Look around your area--are the streets or neighborhoods named after certain people or places? When was the city started? Famous people from your area? How does your city/state/area fit into the larger scale of American history? Trust me--we are all connected somehow, it's just that sometimes those connections are harder to see.

Third, I'm glad the month is up. I need to break from blogging.