I think it is vitally important to learn from history.
George Santayana once said that those who do not learn from the past are doomed to repeat it.
I can add that one of the first things we learn from the past is that those who repeat it are doomed.
Fame and glory –
a house of cards, built on our dreams;
as the dreams metamorphose with new generations,
the foundation is lost,
the eternal glory that seemed immutable becomes muted,
as it slowly fades into a dusty reflection,
into self-indulgent nostalgia for a gilded illusion,
slightly embarrassing but precious, as an old teddy bear…
Rest in peace and good riddance.
Sunlight entangled in accumulation
of spider webs –
more palatable, softer,
but half-dispersed;
as reason and perception –
caught in the web of history,
enriched,
but also limited…
