History is a tapestry

To the Editor:

History is not disconnected names and dates. History is like studying a tapestry. You look at it as a whole and it tells an exciting, living breathing story. It is made up of threads, each thread being a person, other entity or event, which intertwine and connect to weave that story together. Each thread is made up of different colored fibers and threads and different materials, which has its own unique story to tell.

The study of history is to look into that story, the story of mankind from our creation through the present, and to see endless stories and patterns showing not just each individual person, but how they come together to create families and societies, exploration and adventure, advances in technology, science and medicine. It’s more exciting than fiction because it’s real people like you and me. They face the same kinds of struggles and enjoy the same pleasures and victories. They have the same character strengths and flaws.

The manner of dress changes over culture and time. The languages vary. The styles of architecture and levels of technology may differ. But at the root, people are the same no matter what time and place they are from. You have to look at them in context of their time and place.

But as any foreign diplomat or international businessman can tell you, it is the same in our own time. The world is full of different cultures with different values and outlooks, depending on where they live and the laws they live under. That is what makes history and people so fascinating.

No matter how different people and societies appear on the outside, we all are human beings and, fundamentally, the same on the inside.

Michael Sigwerth

Joliet