A first entry

Today marks the beginning of die blauen Berg (The Blue Mountain), a blog I decided to start so as to write about topics that interest me. It also marks the 50th anniversary of manned space flight (1961), and the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War (1861-1865). In four years, people will mark the 150th anniversary of the end of the American Civil War. People who find such things interesting mark the passage of time, and each year turn their thoughts (if they remember) back to another time, on the same day of some year more or less long past. Like birthdays, marking the anniversary of particular events seems to yield perspective, such as when a person climbs a mountain and sees the whole valley laid out before them. The further the distance between ourselves and the event, the more that event seems to take on new significance to those who mark it. No one alive today fought in the American Civil War, and that simple fact colors and shapes the way that the Civil War enters a person's consciousness and imagination in our time today. In our Historiography class, we discussed many things that affect how people of a later period understand and think about particular historical events. Days such as today are perhaps good days to reflect on such things a little more. But I will leave that for after classes. Have a wonderful day :).