"I've looked under chairs…"
Dateline: The Wayback Machine
From Charlie Cummins came this question:
"If you could choose anyone person from history to fish with and have a conversation while fishing, who would it be? Why?"
I like this question so much that I'M going to answer it even though I bet dollars to donuts Charlie wanted to hear the answer from some Elite Pros instead of me.
But this is the perfect question to launch a dialogue, a storylogue actually, between you and me.
We, are storytellers.
Not just me, but you as well, and it is our shared stories that we call history.
So Charlie Cummins, my answer comes in three parts, If I could choose anyone in history to fish with a talk with while fishing, who would it be?
It would be you.
You, Charlie Cummins, would be whom I would pick.
"…I've looked under tables…"
Tell me Charlie, about the tales spun in your boat. I believe that we have on this planet what Mr. Peabody and Sherman called, "The Wayback Machine."
And it floats.
The Wayback Machine is the boat you fish in.
Tell me Charlie, what your father told you while the two of you sat in a boat. In every story your dad told you, were the words of his father, and the dad before him, and the dad before him, and the dad…
Every boat floats on the history of those who have stepped onboard. Tell me their stories. Tell me the stories of your ancestors. Tell me the stories of your fishing buddies.
Tell me the tales you tell your children while they are onboard.
Being a working stiff, I have a pretty easy judging people factor. Would I have a beer with that guy? Would I let that guy, or gal, eat at my table?
Would I want him in my boat?
Tell me, whom would you invite onto your boat.
Charlie, I believe your conversation is as important as anyone's in history.
I believe the real history of us, rests in the stories of those mostly unheard. History belongs not to the famous, but to the unknowns. History should not belong to those who shouted the loudest, but to the working stiffs who kept their conversations quiet.
Which brings me to the second part of the Storylogue. If I had to choose one person other than you Charlie, who would it be?
It would be a tiny village in Massachusetts.
",,,I've tried to find the key…"
To be honest with you Charlie, when I read your question, THIS was the first thing that popped into my mind. In all of history who would I want to talk to? I had only one answer, and it involved needing a bigger boat.
Who would I invite in my boat? The working stiffs of Lexington & Concord. The 500 militiamen who stood face-to-face with three regiments of the most powerful military on the planet at that time, and said, "Enough!"
April 19th, 1775, a Wednesday morning 237 years ago, gave us, our history.
I would invite all the town folk, all the 500 or so militiamen, all the men, women and children, invite them all on my boat and then I would ask them just one question.
"What in the world were you thinking?"
Tell me, you, the guy who stood on the Concord side of the North Bridge holding a one-shot-at-a-time long rifle, you there, tell me, about Freedom.
Tell me what you were thinking when the King's army took to one knee and raised their weapons…at you.
Tell me what you told your wife, the night before.
Tell me what you told your children as you picked up your rifle and ran out the door.
Tell me, why you did it.
It is a why we need to hear today.
It is a why we don't need to hear from the Generals, from the politicians, from those who signed a paper. It is a why we need to hear from those who gave their lives.
On my boat, would be all those who lay dead on a battlefield, for me.
And Charlie, for them, there would be no questions, for them, all I would be able to say would be…THANKS!
"…to fifty million fables…"
Then Charlie, comes the most important conversation I would have on my boat. Who it is, that if I fished, I would want to fish with.
It would be fishing with my great, great, great, great, great GRANDCHILD.
It would be a pretty much one-sided conversation.
I would just be listening.
Listening to what it was, we did wrong.
What mistakes we made. What we could have done differently. Where it was we went wrong, where it was we went right.
In my boat I would want the future to tell me of the past.
Hindsight helping us to see our way today.
Tell me, of me.
Tell us, of us.
Give me the chance to, one time, learn from those who come after us.
Learn, if my boat will be really crowded.
Or just, empty.
"I'm looking for me
You're looking for you
We're looking in at each other
And we don't know what to do."
"The Seeker"
The Who
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