The Best Way to Experience the Past

Have you ever wondered, what is the best way to experience the past? How old are you?  Do you remember where you were and what you were doing when you heard that America had been attacked on 9/11?  What about Columbine High School?  Do you remember what you were doing when JFK was shot?  What about when Ronald Regan was shot?

What about a more happy memory . . . Do you remember where you were when you first realized that you had fallen in love?  Who was your first love?  Did you marry that person?  What was going through your mind when you found out you were going to have a baby?  Were you happy?  Apprehensive?  Scared?

What about events that happened before your time?  How can you experience those moments in history?  Is there a way that you can feel what others were feeling when you were not there?  I believe you can.  There are actually many ways to experience moments in history, but one of the best is by talking to those who were there!

JFK was shot on November 22, 1963.  I wasn’t born until May 1, 1975.  I remember being taught about his assassination in grade school, but I didn’t understand the full impact of this event until much later in life.  I knew the facts, but I didn’t understand the emotion, nor did I understand why I should care.  Until I really experienced the event for myself.

Now, I know what you are thinking . . . How could I experience this event for myself when it happened before I was born?  I experienced it through the eyes of my great-grand-mother, Alice.  Alice had always had a picture of JFK hanging on her wall.  Even when she moved out of her home and into a retirement community, she always made sure to have her picture of JFK.  Yes, she kept pictures of her kids, and grandkids as well, but I never really understood why she kept the picture of JFK.  He wasn’t family, she had never met him in person, it wasn’t signed, but it was incredibly important to her.

One day, I asker her.  I asked why he was so important to her.  She proceeded to tell me a story that I was truly unprepared to hear.  She told me about a young man who was smart and funny.  About a man who could out-think is opponent.  She told me about a man with charisma and charm.  She told me about a man with vision and passion.  A man the believed in a world where we could do anything, including set foot on another planet, if we joined together in one united goal.  Then, she told me about that man being removed from the earth before his time by a person with too much hate and anger in his life.

After hearing her words, I began to understand several things . . . The first is how she felt in the moment.  The second is why this man was so important to her.  The third is that there is no event that I cannot experience if I ask the right questions of the right people.

Is there an event that you would like to know more about?  Find someone who was there and invite them to dinner or for a cup of lemonade or coffee.  Pull up a chair and begin asking questions.  Find out what was going on.  Talk about how they felt and what they saw.  Dive deep into the moment.  If you can, record it so you can review it again later for things you may have missed.  The internet has a ton of information about history, but that doesn’t allow you to really experience the moment.

When an important event happens in your life, you can be proactive and preserve the memories and moments now with our Any Occasion DIY Time Capsule.  Use it to write letters to the future and customize it for your event.  Save the moment, and share it with someone in the future.

Making Milestone Moments Count,

– Mark