I was listening to someone interviewing Hillary Clinton in 2008, discussing the historic nature of her campaign as a possible first female US president and something struck me.
While history is being made it’s quite anti-climatic compared to the feeling we get from reading about it long after it’s over.
I guess it’s just too normal to be watching some gal in a pantsuit talk about the drama unfolding before us. It’ll be much cooler to read about Hillary Rodham Clinton in about 100 years. People will imagine how it must have been, get all gassed up about what it probably felt like to have been part of it, seeing her live and in person.
“My god, it must have sent chills up their spines!” they’ll say of us.
Well…not really.
While I was watching her speak, live on the telly, I was on my sofa shoving chips and salsa into my mouth, barely listening.
But there it was, by golly, in all its glory. HISTORY IN THE MAKING!.
Hell, even Hillary seemed a bit bored with the idea.
“Yes, it’s extraordinary” she gushed, cheesing it up as much as possible to reflect the topic at hand.
Ain’t it always the case with us humanoids? When the moment is unfolding, when we’re breathing, seeing, hearing, tasting, feeling, it’s like, “yeah yeah yeah…big friggin’ deal. I’m alive. Whoop-tee-do.”
Existence is happening, my own history is being made now but where do I fit, what does it really mean to me?
Maybe we think, “well, hey, that’s cool, sounds great, but my car needs an oil change, the cat just left a hairball in the hall and I’m hungry for Taco Bell.”
Or, “Yep, I know I’m alive, but guess what? So and so died today! Holy shit. Now there is some news. That’s something to write home about.”
Goodness, we certainly are funny little creatures, are we not? We get off on some of the oddest things yet find quite mundane, even dull, what is most incredible.
The past? Very interesting. Future? So intriguing. This moment in time?
“Sorry, not now…I’ve got a headache.”
