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I have a bad habit of thinking about shows that I have just watched, well past the next 24 hours post-show, regurgitating and savour the bits and pieces of the show again and again(a gross metaphor..but work has taken a toll on the brain. Try re-formating reports and powerpoints for 2 weeks in a row).
The spirit portrayed by Daniel Day Lewis as Lincoln moved me to no bounds - the stoic-ness, bearing the weight of the war and family. His beliefs, that moved mountains and made history.
The skeptic in me wonder whether if he had started the civil war due to his conviction to restore natural justice of the world (that slavery was wrong) or tool for power play (over the Southern conferederete states). Even so, a man being the sum of his experiences, I also wonder what had made the man that he was - what had he seen or felt, to culminate to his humanitarian principles and beliefs that slavery has no place in the world that he was living in (one that the word "humanitarian" probably didn't even exist)?
I guess that calls for another movie.
xxxxx
It took another almost 100 years before what Lincoln set out to do see some fruition. And as proclaimed in the movie, the impossibles became a reality - inter-racial marriages, WOMEN GETTING TO VOTE (which led me to a point about a book i read recently - apparently in some parts of the world, they must think women imbecile, cos where in place of having a man as the witness, you will need two women as witnesses, before the testimonies could be accepted).
When it had probably appeared almost unimaginable, became a natural fact of life. Which led me to wonder what else could have appeared unimaginable now, may became a common way of life, if given time. Gay marriage is one definitely (I totally don't see any wrong in that)...hmm..what else..?
xxxxx
My (very limited) knowledge of the civil wars between the Confederates and the Union came not from any history books, but from the trials and tribulations of Scarlett O'Hara. I didn't choose to do History in school, probably due to the fact that I was half dozing off during the history lessons during the lower secondary classes on hot, humid afternoons.
I remembered Mrs Kit, the history teacher called my name out of the blue once before I took the last step into dreamland. I stood up dazed, and my partner seated beside me had to discreetly point out the paragraph, which I read out without ever knowing what exactly was the question. Mrs Nair (i think that was her name), the Geography teacher was more gregarious. I also remember (and forever be amazed) that she would write out all the Geography notes every lesson on the blackboard from memory. Which meant that i couldn't be falling asleep while writing at the same time as I form mental image of disintegration of rocks due to alternating state of water lodged in crevices.
Obviously I chose to do Geography.
A friend pointed out that history is still important, to learn how things came to be so, and keeps lessons of mistakes made. I don't doubt that, I just wonder how much people keep in mind of catastrophic events in the history to prevent stepping off the cliffs ahead of them, blinded or distracted by the scenery along the way. It seems like we never believe that we may make the same mistakes, and forge ahead with foolhardy optimism; anyway, I can only imagine that a person who always worry that we may re-commit the same mistakes and foretell our doom as the ultimate pessimist, which is equally not a good thing either.
And even so, I wonder how much can history tell us about events which had never happened before, like global warming (yes, despite naysayers claiming that it's all a farce, I believe in global warming). I don't think anything can teach us how to deal with things like that, and we ourselves may become text book examples for our future generations ("If only our ancestors had known to stop destroying Earth, we would not be staying underground/in the sea/on Mars now").
I guess that calls for another movie.
xxxxx
It took another almost 100 years before what Lincoln set out to do see some fruition. And as proclaimed in the movie, the impossibles became a reality - inter-racial marriages, WOMEN GETTING TO VOTE (which led me to a point about a book i read recently - apparently in some parts of the world, they must think women imbecile, cos where in place of having a man as the witness, you will need two women as witnesses, before the testimonies could be accepted).
When it had probably appeared almost unimaginable, became a natural fact of life. Which led me to wonder what else could have appeared unimaginable now, may became a common way of life, if given time. Gay marriage is one definitely (I totally don't see any wrong in that)...hmm..what else..?
xxxxx
My (very limited) knowledge of the civil wars between the Confederates and the Union came not from any history books, but from the trials and tribulations of Scarlett O'Hara. I didn't choose to do History in school, probably due to the fact that I was half dozing off during the history lessons during the lower secondary classes on hot, humid afternoons.
I remembered Mrs Kit, the history teacher called my name out of the blue once before I took the last step into dreamland. I stood up dazed, and my partner seated beside me had to discreetly point out the paragraph, which I read out without ever knowing what exactly was the question. Mrs Nair (i think that was her name), the Geography teacher was more gregarious. I also remember (and forever be amazed) that she would write out all the Geography notes every lesson on the blackboard from memory. Which meant that i couldn't be falling asleep while writing at the same time as I form mental image of disintegration of rocks due to alternating state of water lodged in crevices.
Obviously I chose to do Geography.
A friend pointed out that history is still important, to learn how things came to be so, and keeps lessons of mistakes made. I don't doubt that, I just wonder how much people keep in mind of catastrophic events in the history to prevent stepping off the cliffs ahead of them, blinded or distracted by the scenery along the way. It seems like we never believe that we may make the same mistakes, and forge ahead with foolhardy optimism; anyway, I can only imagine that a person who always worry that we may re-commit the same mistakes and foretell our doom as the ultimate pessimist, which is equally not a good thing either.
And even so, I wonder how much can history tell us about events which had never happened before, like global warming (yes, despite naysayers claiming that it's all a farce, I believe in global warming). I don't think anything can teach us how to deal with things like that, and we ourselves may become text book examples for our future generations ("If only our ancestors had known to stop destroying Earth, we would not be staying underground/in the sea/on Mars now").
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