Turning to history

There’s a lot going on in the political theatre right now and, if we’re all honest with ourselves, there has been for a while. A lot of that is fueled by the presence of climate change but some of it is the natural cycle of modern human societies, wherein the powerful do their best to muck things up out of fragility or boredom or what-have-you. Regardless of the source it’s all pretty stressful to live with.

One of my new interests in light of the general chaos out there is history. It is comforting to look back on empires lost and cities transformed and realize that everything old is, in fact, new again. Even climate change, in its way, is not a new event — the scale is vastly expanded, obviously, but look at a given fallen empire and usually there is some kind of climate factor, from the Macedonian Greeks to the Mayans. And as a hobby, a writer could have a worse one! I’ve learned a lot about human technological shifts (and toilets).

Some of this kicked off for me with my trip to Italy back in 2022. I blogged very briefly about that trip at the time — there was a series planned but personal events took the wind out of my sails. But I spent a lot of time on the trip exploring ruins and cities that had grown around them, and got to see Venice, a city that really hasn’t changed much in 500 years. It was a mind-opening experience.

Recently I’ve been researching Roman Britain as inspiration for my WIP, which is a slow-going, meandering project I’ve taken on largely for self-entertainment and stress relief. Fall of 2022 was rough, a dark time that set me back in most areas of my life, and 2023 and 2024 have been largely taken up with pregnancy and new parenthood respectively. Having something that is free of deadlines or pressure has been kind of wonderful. Having the excuse to dive into historical research has helped a great deal with insomnia. It’s a win-win.

In any case, the Roman Empire and its habit of colonization, its fall, the impacts of the world on the empire and the empire on the world, have been fascinating to learn about. I recognize I’m not alone in that. It was a whole meme this past year or so (time gets fungible in baby land). I do think there’s a lot to learn about where some of our social assumptions come from, from cribs to political campaigns to architecture and city design to gender. I often wish we weren’t so inspired by a society founded essentially on a bunch of ne’er-do-wells who kidnapped their neighbors for breeding stock.

But the takeaway, I think, is that empires come and empires go. It’s not very fun to live through usually. But we’re all just waves on the shore. A crash, and back into the drink. Pretty humbling, and for me that humility helps.

Hope you are all staying warm and resting and holding on to the things you love this winter.