Listening to History That Did Not Live In Vain.

[. . .truth, whose mother is history, who is the rival of time, depository of deeds, witness of the past, example and lesson to the present, and warning to the future.] 

Jorge Luis Borges (Ficciones 53)

I was interesting to me that Borges was impressed to analyze these lines from Don Quixote among all the many lines he could have chosen. These lines exemplify which truth is. Not only what is now but what is was--the same as now because it never changes.

Upon reading these lines in this text I immediately thought of eighth grade history class and a quote by Edmund Burke which we had to memorize, it said:

"Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it."

Through all of these years this line of truth has stood tall in my mind without being forgotten. Edmund Burke lived in the eighteenth century, and was a voice for political conservatism. 

Though what I find incredibly interesting is that he relates truth to the mother of history. How can the study of history shape our future? And how does listening and benefiting from our mothers, our caregivers, life providers, and our nurturers be just as life changing for each of us.

Much of it comes to a central agreement that we are not on our own. We have our mothers to help teach and provide for us and in another aspect of life we have history. The fact that people have not lived in vain, and sometimes it is in vain if we take no concern to see what they lived and died for—a similar attribute of our mothers.

The truth that history is the best teacher, and also a warning for our future, and teaches us here in the present emphasizes Burke’s words that the truths in history are here for our benefit but if we choose to ignore it the same events are going to happen to us—that this mother, history and life already lived doesn’t need to be a cycle of destruction but a lesson for the future of humanity.