History

Keeping Past Memories

/ Chase Blosser / Leave a comment

What do you remember fondly from your #past? What family #memories do you recall the most, both good and bad? Do you forget your past memories a lot? Have you started recording them in a journal or in some other form? We all have and create life experiences and the memories to go with them, yet as we grow and get older and the more that are added to the list to remember said memories, they get foggier and foggier, and we soon start to forget the oldest ones.

The fact that we would over time not remember any of our past, let alone the most memorable of our experiences is tragic, for it is our life experiences and our memories of them that make us who we really are as well as reminding us what really matters in life. Our memories give us perspective on not only our lives but life in general. It is thus essential and recommended that we record and write down our experiences.

Most people know the importance of such when it comes to family memories (family home videos, and baby journals). Yet, not all of our experiences and memorable events warrant making a video of or they happen at times that don’t allow for such. Thus writing them down like in a daily journal is highly useful and needed.

Writing down our memories does not have to be only in journals they can be turned into stories to share with others. Those who write professionally such as bloggers/columnists do this all the time. They will write an article that tells about a past experience of theirs and makes it relevant for us the reader to want to know about it and learn from it.

Writing about one’s own past life experience is in some ways what a writer does best. Although all of our life experiences are different and happen in different ways when you look at them all deep down, there are usually plenty of similarities. Thus when writers share theirs, others can then compare and learn from both.

So when you find yourself looking back on your life and remembering some very memorable experiences, write them down and share them with others. In this way you not only will ensure that they are never forgotten but that others can learn from them as you perhaps have. Also if you have not already done so, start #keeping a journal. It does not have to be a daily one, although they do help, instead it just needs to be one were you from time to time on a regular bases record what has happened in your life and what you have experienced.

 

What are your thoughts and viewpoints on this subject? Please do share, all are welcomed and wanted here!

“The Founding Fathers’ Guide To The Constitution” by Brion McClanahan; A Review

/ Chase Blosser / Leave a comment

#Brion #McClanahan‘s book “#The #Founding Father’s #Guide #to the #Constitution” is #a very compelling and complex history of just how The Constitution to the United States had come to be and of the views for and against it. The way he percents his facts and figures and the back-stories behind each of the debates during the Constitutional Convention and the ratifying debates is just stellar in the thoroughness and ease of following.

Especially compelling is how he counts not just the well-known men that “we” all “know” from history as “Founding Father’s” (Washington, Madison, Hamilton, so forth), but literally everyone involved in the making and ratifying of the Constitution. He measures involvement #by the debates on what type of government the United States should have; which were going on all across the thirteen states since during the Revolution on till the ratification its self.

He tells how the “founding #fathers” included not just the names we recognize such as those mentioned above, but many others such as Luther Martin, Rodger Sherman, and George Mason, to name a few. He also does away with the “common” terms of “Federalist” and Anti-federalist” in explaining his reasoning; where he shows how the opponents of the Constitution were actually wanting to preserve the existing federal system of the Article of Confederation.

Brian’s work shines because of the detail he puts into his findings that the Constitution would not have passed ratification let alone pass the Convention floor if it was not understood to be putting in place a strong centralized government, but one with limits in place. He also does a wonderful, enlightening job of explaining away certain preconceived notions and myths about the “founding fathers” and the making of the Constitution.

It is a myth-but one often repeated-that the Framers “really wanted” the president to be chosen by the people at large; supposedly they rejected this method only because the people in one State would not know enough about the candidates from others States. But the records from the Philadelphia Convention clearly illustrate that the Founders intended the Electoral College to be a buffer against the potential abuses of democracy (p.129).

Overall, the book is a very well thought-out, telling of the history of the Founding of the (2nd Republic) of The United States under the current Constitution. He does an excellent job of keeping to a “fact-based” scholarly approach while at the same time showing the suspense and conflict experienced by our “founding fathers” to keep the reader entertained as well as informed and not be drowned in “dry” texted. A very good history of the subject with some surprising turns in its direction. The most important point from a historical perspective is that the author Brian does so well in not just telling the history of the Constitution’s making, but the telling of “all the sides” involved.

I hope you enjoy this book #review; please do share your own thoughts and viewpoints. All are welcomed and wanted!

I am an Inkling; Are You?

/ Chase Blosser / Leave a comment

This is a response to the one-word prompt “Inkling” by “The Daily Post.”

The word #inkling means to have a slight knowledge or suspicion. It was also the name of #an informal intellectual group of friends in the early 20th century, started by four author/writers being J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Owen Barfield, and Charles Williams. If #you don’t know of Lewis and Tolkien, you need to get out of your mom’s basement!

There were a few other members/associates of the group such as Lewis’s older brother, but the group mainly consisted of those four. They named themselves “Inklings” after there many meetups and informal group intellectual discussions.

If inkling means to have a slight knowledge or hint of something more, then a reason the  four authors perhaps named themselves as such could be that they believed that individually they did not know too much, but by coming together to share and discuss ideas, they actually did begin to gain a “slight knowledge about things/life in general; thus becoming “Inklings” in the knowing a little bit more about things then they would otherwise.

#Are you an “Inkling?” Do you have a group of friends/colleagues that meet to share ideas to gain a “slighter knowledge of things in this world?  Who are these people in this group of yours; or do you have more than one?

#I can think of more than a few small groups that I #am a part of and meet with regularly that would make me an “Inkling,” for I do consider my self to have a “slighter increase in knowledge of things after each and every discussion, that I would not have had without.

The four “original Inklings” before my time perhaps; but that does not make me and those in my groups any less an “Inkling.” We get the same benefits they did in their group discussions and learn things that we very well may not have without the group discussions just as they constantly did.  So too is it with you and anyone else who has an “Inkling” group.

So, do you have an “Inkling” group/s? If so, do you consider yourself an “Inkling;” why or why not? If you get a slight knowledge of things that you would not otherwise in your group discussions than that makes you an “Inkling.” Acknowledge that fact, embrace it; become a “member” of one of the well-known informal intellectual group of friends in history.

So what are your thoughts and viewpoints on this subject? Please do share, all are welcomed and wanted. I want to know my “Fellow Inklings.”

A Time To Cherish

/ Chase Blosser / 5 Comments

This is #a response #to the one-word prompt “Cherish” by “The Daily Post.”

For Christians, Chrismas is the #time to celebrate the birth of humanity’s savior Jesus Christ, but even for the non-Christian, it is an important time of year. Christmas for everyone is a very special moment of each year that deserves to be cherished. For Christmas is all about hope; hope for the coming new year, hope for an end/lessening of one’s troubles, and just plain hope for whatever hope is needed for.

With that hope that we have come to associate and #cherish with Christmas comes a much needed reminded of perspectives in life; of what is truly and really important to ourselves and our communities. Christmas for a brief time takes away all our troubles and problems from our minds and removes differences, hates, and reveries between peoples as well.

There is a great example of such from World War I, called the “Christmas Truce” where during the Christmas of the first year I believe, the common soldiers on the western front on both sides stopped fighting and exchanged gifts and such. Sadly this “truce” did not last, but the fact that it happened at all is indeed something to cherish. Chrismas does not just bring hope, it brings us as humans altogether by reminding us of what we all have in common instead of what we do not; that truly is something to Cherish! Merry Christmas to all!

What are your thoughts and viewpoints on this Christmas subject? Please do share, all viewpoints all welcomed and indeed wanted!

Staying Silent Helps No one

/ Chase Blosser / Leave a comment

This is a response to the #one-word prompt “Silent” by “The Daily Post.”

#No one wants to offend or start a controversy over “nothing.” “Don’t discuss Politics at the dinner table.” “See no evil, hear no evil.” “This/that does not concern me.” Most of us know and have heard all this from somewhere and/or have said such themselves. Somehow we think if we don’t discuss a “problem” or involve ourselves,  if not already involved, then the “problem” will eventually go away or work itself out.

We tend to think that if we do get involved in something, (perceived to be not involving us in the first place), that only makes things worse and more heated, complicated. This is and can’t be any further from the truth.

In any society, no matter what form of government it takes, everyone apart of that society has a commitment and duty to his/her fellow citizens to be involved in some way in the broader community and its governance. This is even truer for those societies with some form of representative governance such as “republics” as the United States.  A society is made up of people who voluntarily enter into community with one another to more easily live and take care of one’s needs.

In order for these “volunteer communities” to survive and succeed, everyone in it needs to do his/her part in it, and keep and follow the rules, laws, and/or agreements that have been made and agreed by the vast majority of the society. Yes, there will always be a few who don’t and thus break the “social compact” (criminals), that is why we have laws and law enforcement; not necessary to enforce the rules of society on its “agreeing members” but to “punish” those who live in the society, but do not follow its rules and agreements.

Thus, when “problems” pop up in the broader society, it is the responsibility of those in a “representative republic” to be apart of the solving of that problem by talking about voicing their thoughts/opinions with fellow society members. As Ronald Reagan said, “All great changes in America, happen at the dinner table.” When the people aren’t involved in society’s problems, society begins to break down.

This is why our politics have become so divisive these last few years, with our leaders in Washington bearly able to get anything done. It is not because there is too much political discussion as some think, but because there is actually too little; that leads to what few discussions there are to break down into “heated, ugly debates.”

So the next time you have friends or family wanting to discuss politics/society’s problems, please do join in the friendly conversation.

So what are your thoughts on this subject? Please do share. Your thoughts and viewpoints are very much welcomed and wanted.