How have you had your history in the past? Does history seem to be highly organized under specific categories, broken down into nice compartments for easy memorization? Well, this might be the perspective that one could take from how boats are lined up at a large marina. Everyone has seen such a picture. They look real neat, don't they?

Well, as the forecast tracks on hurricanes continually show us, things can look one way for awhile and then turn out differently later on. What hurricanes leave behind provides us with the possibility of developing perspectives about many aspects of life. With regard to history, Hurricane Ivan, a powerful storm in September of 2004, left behind a ravaged yacht marina, and a picture of yachts all tumbled together can give us an entirely different perspective of history. [Picture below.] This perspective ressembles what many of us experience as we look back on our own lives. There are so many events, and people, that make up this history that it is difficult to separate all of our memories into clearly defined categories. However, when one does want to bring attention to a specific time, place, person or event, we usually can make the right connections to other information that is part of or related to the specific information we have recalled.

So, trying to untangle Ivan tumbled yachts, and identify them, one would begin to take them apart one boat at a time. One would want to identify the owner of each one as they came loose from Ivan's tossed salad. Then, the owner would begin to make an assessment of the damage to the boat. That entails listing a whole set of related items, just like a single event in history will have a host of other events, times, place and people associated with the first event. So, take a look at Ivan's work and take the time to try to process history similar to taking one boat at a time out of the mess Ivan left behind. Have fun!!