How Much History Can One Handle?

Articles

How Much History Can One Handle?

By Johan Peters
Nov. 28, 2004

At the end of the year I always get a feeling of melancholy. I start thinking about what I have experienced the almost past year myself. It was quite a lot this year. But, there is more. The older I get, the more I am aware of the incredible speed of history.

Every new day that has passed is a new day in the history book of mankind. I have been appearing in this book for 35 years. Of course, I am only a paltry element in it, not worth being mentioned in even one single sentence until now. However, I have been part of many historical experiences that already deserved their place in the book.

I was born in the year Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. It is always nice one can say that. Just until the time I became a teenage, history moved on in a clearly structured way. Cold War reigned. The USA and the former USSR fought their (mostly) verbal battles. The rest of the world looked at it and hoped for the best. Then, in 1985, mister Gorbatsjov took power in the USSR. Things changed rapidly from then.

With the risk this paragraph gets a high standard of ´grandpa is telling´, I mention some important things. I have seen the Berlin wall just a few months before it fell down. The many revolutions in the former Eastern bloc countries since the fall of that wall, the release of Nelson Mandela and his presidency of South Africa, the historic peace agreement between the Palestinians and Israel (of which nothing is left anymore, unfortunately).

What did I forget? So many things: Bill Clinton and his cigar, 9/11, 3/11. In the Netherlands the murder of Pim Fortuyn and Theo van Gogh. And so on, and so on. I can not simply mention all in one column. One thing is clear: we are part of a turbulent, sometimes hopeful, mostly frightening, but always interesting period in the history book of mankind. It is good to think of this now and then.

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About the author: Johan Peters works as a parttime (chief) editor and webmaster with an organisation for disabled people in the city of Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Furthermore, he is a freelance journalist and has written two books in the year of 2004. One is about the commercial BDSM scene in The Netherlands and Belgium (which will be published in the month of December 2004). The other is about the difficulties physically disabled people experience with relationships and sexuality (which will be released spring 2005). He is now thinking about writing a new book that has got nothing to do with sex. It will be about famous Dutch artists who have come at age and look back at their life. This project must start January 2005. Read more about it on www.johanpeters.net (partly in English). Email Johan Peters: johan.peters@johanpeters.net

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