history11

World History - Lesson 11

Jaron Summers

A history book for

Becki, 9, a distant cousin in Canada.

Hi, Becki,

OK. This is the final chapter. Thanks for hanging in there and sending me so many terrific e-mails.

When you come to visit us in California I will show you our new kitchen.

It’s not exactly new, we rebuilt it after the last earthquake. No fun, I’ll tell you. (But it made a good story, for another time.)

We made the counters out of granite slabs.

The granite is exactly one billion and 12 years old. Exactly. So we might have a new kitchen but it’s made out of old rock. (And some of my wife’s tears—that’s even a better story but not for now.)

You might ask me how I know that the granite is exactly 1,000,000,012 years old.

Answer: When I bought the granite 12 years ago the salesman said that the granite was a billion years old. So our counter top has to be 1,000,000,012 years old.

Pretty, silly huh?

But it’s no more silly than a lot of people who lecture on history.

Believe it or not, there was an Archbishop of Trinity College in Dublin, who told people that God created this world on Sunday 23, October 4004 BC. His name was James Ussher (1581-1656) and you can read about him.

I don’t know if you believe in dinosaurs.

Scientists claim they were kicking around on earth 100s of millions of years ago.

In my opinion the earth could be quite a bit older than the archbishop figured. But then I believe in dinosaurs. Although it’s hard to figure out what dinosaurs really looked like.

But anyway, I believe in them, even if they turn out to be giant chickens. So maybe they were scratching around, not kicking.

Nobody really knows about history, Becki. That’s the point of this book.

We can’t really be sure about what happened millions of years ago, or even hundreds of years ago because whoever comes up with certain facts, looks at the world through their special perspective.

You can't even be sure what happened last week if you have to depend on what people say happened. This is why there are so many court cases. People see things so differently.

All points of view are a little bit wrong and little bit right.

The way you see life is just as important as anyone else’s on earth. Your point of view begins with the way you were raised. The way you are connected to others.

The connection starts with you and your family.

Your family is the best treasure you will ever have.

Deep down inside you know this is true. Heck, even babies know it’s true. Remember how one of their first things they do is learn how to smile? So they can connect.

One of the most fun things is “doing your own history.”

How? By living the best you can every day and then writing what happened to you in a journal.

That history for you will be truer and more accurate than anything historians will come up with.

And someday your children and their children and their children can read your journal.

They will feel connected to you.

And as the years pass and you read your journal, you will be astounded by the things you thought when you were ten or 20 or 40 or 100.

Let me give a few suggestions.

Write your journal in pen and ink on good paper (acid free or it’ll get all mushy after a few decades). Try to write a little bit each day. Pictures and cartoons are great, but do them yourself.

When you have a year completed, make a copy of it. You can even scan it and make an electronic copy. Always keep a printed copy.

Good ink on good paper lasts a lot longer than hard drives and CDs. And you can use ink without electricity so if you go camping all you need is a journal and a pen.

Kate and I are sending you a journal (with acid free paper that you can read when you write in it for the next 100 years, maybe 200) for your birthday, tomorrow: March 18^th.

It has a nice red leather cover. Would you like your name on it? Or your initials?

Hope you had fun being nine.

Ten will be better, especially if you become your own historian.

Love,

jaron