Discover History in Retirement

Any regular visitor to this website knows that I have a great appreciation for history.  It was my favorite subject in school (no matter how bad the teacher might have been) and that’s saying a lot because going to school was among my least favorite things to do.  I always found the people who made history to be tremendously interesting and, if you could visit the places they lived or where certain events took place, that was a perfect part of any vacation.  As you travel around in your golden years, I would suggest that you make an effort to discover history in retirement.  The amazing part about doing this is that you will find that history isn’t just about the past.  It’s alive and well at many of the historic sites around the country.  The archaeology that is taking place is yielding some amazing discoveries about the past through the efforts of people just like you who are volunteering their time to assist in the discovery process.  It’s great to see the vision that each site has for their future and what activities and events they schedule to remain a relevant part of today.

Monticello, for example, has a calendar of great events and private tours that give you a behind the scenes look at how Thomas Jefferson made the estate his lifetime work.  You’ll discover what life was like during this time and how the design and construction of the home evolved throughout his life.  And, yes, slavery and it’s effect on those who lived in the recently restored quarters are examined in great detail.  When you learn about this complex man and the times that he lived in and the impact that he had on the history of our country, you get a different perspective than you might have gotten from reading a history book.  It doesn’t take long for history to come alive when you visit a place like this.  We have been here a few times during our retirement years, and it was one of the things I looked forward to most in my post-working life.  If you take the time to discover history in retirement, you’ll see that the people who shaped our history were ordinary people who did extraordinary things.  To be able to see where Jefferson lived life to the fullest brings a different perspective than anything you can see in a movie or read in a book.  A lover of fine foods and wine, Jefferson made an extraordinary effort to have delicacies that would rival what he had experienced in Paris and still have time to write a document that Abraham Lincoln called the foundation of our democracy.

Discover history in retirement and become an active participant in the appreciation of our past.

But you don’t have to experience history on such a grand scale as Monticello.  Almost any part of our country has local historic sites that can be of tremendous interest if you just take the time to explore.  Discover history in retirement and you can enter a different world and find out that you have a new hobby or interest to explore.  We have become members of Olana, which is the home of Frederick Church, who was part of the Hudson River School of Artists.  A student of Thomas Cole, who also has a nearby home, Church purchased vast acres of land with a mountain top view of the river and built an incredible home while actually making the grounds a real life architecture of sloping meadows and a manmade lake that create an incredible experience for the visitors who come to tour the Middle East influenced home or just walk the paths that curl around the estate.  The site was almost abandoned until it was rescued in the 1960’s.  The work that has been done has restored the house and created an exciting vision for the future.  We greatly appreciate the work that has been done and enjoy all the updates that we receive explaining future plans.  Membership in a place like this or any of the hundreds of worthwhile historic sites throughout our beautiful country make you a part of history and the wonderful efforts to preserve it and learn from it.

I happen to think that studying history gives you the best understanding of what is happening today.  There is almost nothing new because it has happened before in one form or another.  As Theodor Reik once said, history doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.  Discover history in retirement and you greatly expand your perspective and gain a better understanding of what is happening around us today.  One of the best ways is to visit a piece of history in your travels and take the time to understand how the things that happened twenty, fifty or even hundred years ago are still impacting us today.  Learn something new by discovering the past.  It’s time to explore everything that went before us.  It’s time to Enjoy Retired Life!

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