History, and so what?

. . . An opening for me to say what about history that I got wrong, and what I consider now to be more correct.

In college I wrote a term paper on what history is, er, was. I argued that there was no such thing. There was only the ever-present now. This I made the mistake of submitting to a history professor. He dismissed my understanding, but it appears he did not enlighten me much. So later, years later, I wrote a graduate paper saying much the same thing to no feedback. I guess that is what you get if you elect for pass/no-pass evaluation of your work. No comment and no corrections.

Could it be that I really misunderstood and undervalued this dear field of inquiry so much? for so long? Not really.

What I was confused about and finally got clearer was that history, as other disciplines or fields of knowledge, had a perspective. In fact, yes fact, we all, each and everyone, have a perspective. (I realize my performative error here.) And the perspective of an historian or other specialist conforms in large measure to those shared by others in that calling, or who are well grounded in it. I guess I just wasn't in touch with history's unique, let's say effectively tacit yet most-practiced perspective shared by historians and those who appreciate and identify somehow with their endeavors. Or to be more honest, I didn't think beyond me about what history could be. It could be different from the accounts of personal journeys in consciousness, mostly mine. Or, that personal journeys--those of individual consciousnesses--were also a kind of history, but perhaps not what people usually think that history is or should be.

But history is of great value only if useful, I insist. This too is belied by the oft-heard objection and rejection, "This situation is different." Thus, we can't really use history for better outcomes. History does not really repeat itself. Besides, people don't know history and its lessons, and they can't be bothered to crack a book or two to get a sense of self from memory and where we have come from.

I have to allow, because it is a tenet of my own studies and those of others who pursue the drum, dregs and details accuracy demands, that just to understand something better is a legitimate end. The utility argument may be wrestled into position anytime by any rationalization, but in the end, why bother? What we come to think we understand better now without application is reward enough. Approximate truth is its own reward.

So, whether useful or no, building a case and synthesis of pasts is legit. By history then I mean a very convincing presentation of what happened and then what happened all the way down to the understandings or lesson(s) personal or collective, if any.

The problem is what of the past should be investigated and pieced together? and how? such that when the account is done and finished as much as it can possibly be and we say, "Oh, I now really understand what happened," AND (optionally) "I can take this as a remedy for my/our future." There is the rub, and only those innocents and most knowledgeable can answer this. I am just a consumer, hopefully not too innocent.

I had a colleague once, an historian by academic training and practice. He said once that whatever he could use to bolster his case about whatever, he would employ it. It sounded then as now a bit eclectic. Are there no criteria as to good versus bad evidence? So the questions of which histories should be investigated and reported, and how they are supported, are not trivial.

History is about carefully and precisely understanding the past. It is also, for me, about building futures. I don't know if this definition holds up among the cognoscente, but it suffices.

If different folks know about different stuff, that's how it is, and so what? I admit, I don't know much history, not even enough of my own. Shows, doesn't it?

And so what? Except this.

History is memory. And memory figures largely (entirely?) in my/our identity. When we forget or neglect, we have lost a part of ourselves. More precisely, when we lose the ability to retrieve memories, then we fail to understand who we are, and who we can be if re-minded.

It is that ability I was first concerned about, say twenty years ago. So much is available now so that we will not lose the ability to retrieve. Once retrieved, that record or artifact can be stored privately, semi-publicly and publicly. The current state of information and communications technologies permit us to retrieve, and store and use; and literacy in using these technologies seems to be ever-expanding. Thus, my earlier-life worries that literacy was in decline no longer occupies much space. There are enough careful readers/audience and writers/producers in the world to satisfy the most exacting standards. Technical and human impediments to access keep being eliminated, and more and more people are participating. All good.

Now, the memories themselves. The guardians of the best that we can know about the past is in the hands of professionals and experts in, or living outside, every country, who know how to ferret out wheat from chaff and report. However, because of the openness of the systems and leaks from guarded corners and technologies which can cull without the sifting, we run the great risk of relying upon the essentially or potentially unreliable. The literacy here is not how to use the technologies for our identity's sake, but the ability to discriminate between and among competing accounts as well as to reconcile the parts in order to build wholes. Part of reconciling the parts is dependent upon softer technologies, like ways of thinking, both awareness of and their employment.

Example, history can be seen as the biographies of leaders or the conditions and contexts in which they are called upon to act. Two different histories? The first is to look at history from a third person view of named individuals. The second is to look at history from a systems or sociopolitical view, no names needed, just those softer technologies, call them perspectives, which have proven useful in understanding things. These two histories can be mapped together into a more complex and detailed account that we can call a proper if qualified history.

Where does this leave us: Well, individual from first person view, mine mentioned above, plus that of an individual from a third person view, plus the third person view of a rich description of situations and contexts, and not lastly the weaving of these three together. The weaving together makes for an historical-cultural understanding of the past or pasts. You cannot weave without including all the disparate parts and "making" them make sense. Making sense of what appear to be the separate and irreconcilable is that important job of the historian and cultural commentators. As new technical and softer tools become available which show the promise of greater understanding if employed, yesterday's account of the day before can be revised and placed before us, professionals and others for evaluation.

Identity preserved and accessible. Identity deconstructed via reason-based means. Identity re-constructed. Identity renewed!. And if identity shines recursively in newer and newer lights of past and present, better futures can be imagined and enacted.

A nice state of affairs . . . if all pre-requisites and requisites are in place. Re-minding makes the past present and the present different than it seemed to be when it was without a sense of identity, a sense of our past.

Pavla's Benano "escort" service

Field Trips 2013

1. Agriturismo day trip: Salvatore's is a holiday farmhouse which offers horseback riding, outdoor and indoor swimming and a restaurant for family style dining. Get to know Italian wines while tasting the house's finest. There are many animals to pet on the farm, but not the wild boars or the deer. A bit standoffish. You will feel you have died and gone to heaven for a day. Getting to know this down-to-earth but sophisticated Roman family including kids and dogs is a delight. Only 35 kilometers from Benano.

2. Pan's pasture: Ever wonder how goat cheese is made but don't want a day trek? Down and up some dirt roads and hidden near Santa Quirico is the closest goat herd and Sicilian cheese maker. See the animals give up their precious milk and how that is turned into the most delicious stuff. Tasting of course, buy if you wish. The cheese is featured at Orvieto's best restaurants. Do not fill up on the fresh goat milk yogurt if the trip includes a meal at the lovely luxury agriturismo which exhibits local art and jewelry. Views of Benano and the valley between to die for.

3. Country "giro": This is a day trip along windy but mostly paved roads to visit first a farm and taste the fare from "the other famous" goat cheese maker. A short hike is optional to see the panorama that is wild Umbria before arriving at the borgo Titignano for lunch. You will want to linger and explore this hideaway thoroughly, but the road promises a return to Benano by way of the World War II "fallen soldiers" cemetery near Orvieto. A sacred, meticulously maintained and immensely moving yet seldom visited space. Then a short hop to a local's hangout for Italian family color and home-cooked specialties, if your tummy has room.

4. Bolsena and a boat: We travel the short distance to Lake Bolsena and its main town and learn about the miracle of Corpus Domini as well as the Christian martyr, Saint Cristina. We visit her famous church and stroll to the castle area up through the old quarter. We can top off the afternoon with a boat trip on the lake to swim, hear some lore and learn about the archeological treasures beneath the surface. Optional slice of pizza and glass of beer in San Lorenzo on the way back to Benano. This for those who don't wish to limit their stay in the area by dining lakeside. Too much fun for some.

5. Pienza and San Filipo: This jaunt into neighboring Tuscany with its characteristic scenery takes us to Pienza which is known for sheep cheese (pecorino) and the birthplace of Pope Pius II. A leisurely stroll through the town and lunch will be welcome after sightseeing by car. Afterwards we stop at San Filippo where you can bathe in wooded hot springs for free or pay to use the outdoor pool. Spa treatments available should you want to relax to the max. Home before the Italian dinner bell, a stop along the way to buy homegrown vegetables optional.

6. Pizza night: Join Dino and friends for a family pizza dinner. You won't leave Italy without remembering the characters you have met and how much you laughed and ate--pizzas you have never tasted before at home or in a restaurant. Blame yourself for any excess and the fact that you can't sleep having had too much fun, imbibing homemade wine and liquors into the night while repeatedly singing the only Italian song you don't fully know. (Practice all of "O sole mio" before you go.) 

Additional information: Pavla[dot]Mactavish[at]gmail[dot]com

GemsJetsamAndJunk

Misc. anti-ad copy for an Etsy shop

GEMS we know, small valuable things that deserve a special place in our homes and hearts. Open up and let it in. JETSAM we find somehow, somewhere, and we discover upon careful examination that it needs to be dragged home because of its quality of growing dear, especially so after a second thought. Surely it will earn a special place in our collections, in our hearts. Got to have it. JUNK? Proverbially a treasure for someone . . . who is special, always.

Solo Jupiter Matchbook

Solo Matches and Flames (http://www.solo.cz/) dates its products from 1839. However, this book of matches ain't that old. Probably produced in the 50s or early 60s of the last century, commemorating a town in the western part of Bohemia, and with just a pair of wooden matches missing, this is a modest addition to your collection.

Or use the remaining matches to light your own quiet revolution. Why it is said, this book of matches was taken from Brno in Moravia to Wenceslas Square in Prague at the time of the Velvet Revolution. As all assembled held up and rattled their keys in daylight (and believe me, the Czechs love their locks and keys), by nightfall the populace, thankful for the overthrow of communism, lit matches and held them up in vigil to a time well rid of. Two old matches should do the trick. One to chase out the old and useless, one to usher in the uncertain but decidedly better new.

Mikov Czech Utility Knife--Svata's boyhood tool
 
In 1794, Ignaz Rösler set up the first cutlery factory in Mikulášovice, now part of the Czech Republic. There were a hundred employees; however, the number doubled by 1819. The success of the first factory motivated others to set up other factories and businesses. Soon, most of Mikulášovice and surrounding villages were working to make these products. Mikulášovice became known as the "Czech Solingen". During World War II, Mikulášovice was part of the Third Reich. And you know what that meant. It was not until 1946 that traditional production resumed (see http://www.mikov.cz/). And by the time Svata left Czechoslovakia in the mid-'60s for Austria/Hungary and eventually South Africa, he had to leave behind his Mikov knife, which he had used for all manner of boyhood projects, including cutting his beloved Lovecká saláma (Czech salami). Here's a knife up to the task of cutting your salami, Czech or otherwise.

Steel cutting edge with plastic handle, overall length 21 cm.

Pozor (be careful)!! It is sharp.

French linen lingerie bag
 
Nadesh from Marseille contributes this old . . . no, not "old". Vintage French linen lingerie bag with beautiful hand embroidery, part of a French maiden's trousseau.

Not French? or a maiden? No matter. Delicate and sexy--like the dainties tucked within, meant to catch the eye briefly before the big bang. Opps. Misspoken. We are still in the Victorian era on some planets. Demure and pure, and all that stuff.

Regardless. Go ahead. Spice up that atmosphere for that special night, or noon, or morning, or afternoon, or . . . you get the idea.

A clever modern maid can eliminate the small stains on the reverse. Thus the deep discount.

AT Brevetti "finger slicer"
 
From the makers of the famous Italian espresso machines comes this simple slicer. It appears to be designed for accepting small items such as cloves of garlic, limes, fingers . . . who knows what?

From sturdy metal with wood plunger, a true dust collector for that kitchen artifacts display area in home or restaurant. Who else could want it? Someone looking for that truly white elephant, an almost priceless gift that keeps on giving and assuredly will be re-given. (Deep discount for the one who comes up with the best alternative idea for use.)

Oh, guaranteed this item has not (yet) been presented for appraisal at any "Antiques Road Show". Your golden opportunity.

DDR vintage white ceramic pitcher
 
. . . with stylized, painted blue clover accent, available nowhere else that we can imagine, except in some time-capsulized flat in, say, Leipsig, cordoned-off and still sealed by the not-forgotten Stasi, anachronisms both now after The Wall. Yours to look at and think what it must have been like to witness those days that the younger generation can now only know through history books, or their great grandfather's or grandmother's letters in German. Well, this would only apply to a very few, of course. The net of it, a unique decorative item, or you can use it. A treasure in my house for years, but irrelevant here in Italy where communists still thrive, although they say of a different stripe.

Stamped handmade and dishwasher safe on the bottom. Curious addition?

Yes, made for right handers. Everyone is right handed, no?

NO!

Layered wooden dachshund decorative sculpture
 
Perched on a shelf or mounted inside or out, this dog is the silent type. No a barker BUT has all the best attributes of cute including soulful eyes. A dachshund like no other. This guy needs a new home. My Golden Retriever, Maco, is jealous of his honored place in our home, up high where he doesn't descend to play, or get chewed. "Useless," he says, and so we have decided to give the smaller one up for adoption. The semblance of the sausage dog without the long part, not the playful one that barks every time the doorbell rings. Made locally but only available from one small shop tourists never find, or from the eight plus two half-fingered woodworker himself.

Inquire if interested in other dogs or creatures like this. Similar price as this special pet not guaranteed, nor are shipping estimates.

Priapus, Caliban of Calabria, driftwood sculpture, curiosity

This artifact from the shores of Calabria on the Tyrrhenian Sea was wrested from its root and pebble-strewn lair and now represents, this writer imagines, the god of male procreation and gardens and vineyards as of old Roman myth. A unique piece of nature's sculpture, or art lover's fantasy (folly?) to decorate your den or other such private place. Not for Puritan peepers.

Alternatively, mount it upside down and the captured stone in wood becomes a wonder, a curiosity--how did it manage to find itself there in that sacred, seemingly impossible, protected space?

Contemplate but briefly, or the magic of Priapus will take you in down- or upside and float naughty thoughts about your head and lower reaches; these have been known to beget pleasures forbidden.

Not for the timid or unadventurous collector. Great as a gift for the one you love to befuddle.

Could be a HEAVY METAL HEART 

A pirate in the Caribbean--no really--gave this to show his gratitude to a mate, Pinkie, after the latter saved him from walking the plank at the natives' insistence because of a black spot found on the palm of his hand. Said the pirate to Pinkie, "I think it was there all along, before you gave me that paper with the temporary tattoo which transferred to my other hand in this humid hell. What a sweaty place! How can these natives stand it? Thank God that second spot is gone. It made me look rather queer having matching spots each time I begged for food and favors. Boy, they sure went wild, didn't they, bowing and all that c$#@p. I feel delivered. I give my heart thanks, and this heart to you. Watch it doesn't rust in this climate."

I came by it when trading with cannibals on St. Givens. Now it can be yours.

Socialist era matches and box
 
Absolutely original and unique.Light a match and catch a scent of days gone by when everyone had a job and a place to live and free health care. Light a match each time you wish to return to those days. Or if you anticipate such days and see them on the horizon, save to light to celebrate the second coming, er, a new and better and enlightened age. (Not sorry about the pun.) Just draw your breath in and hold till that future moment when you will strike the match, slowly exhale and blow the flame out and drink in the best of all possible worlds. (A bunch of mixed metaphors here, eh?)

Item guaranteed. Better days ahead, not.

Florentine flowers on wood, miniature

Nothing much for not much, BUT can fill in a space needing a bit of color and complexity reminiscent of the more ornate and more expensive. Miniature on wood, rustic, 9 cm by 9 cm - 3.5 in by 3.5 in. Unfortunately, there is no story for this one, but I can make one up starting with Juliet's wedding dress, if you buy it, the miniature that is. I promise not to repeat what the Bard has already told you about this bit of fluff as in an ornate remnant of Renaissance tapestry. (Great play, however.)

Dinosaur's faux tooth
 
Well, not really. What's in a name? But an expert might tell you differently. Ask him or her, after you buy and inspect it closely yourself.

Hold it in your hand. Set it in view on the table, or nightstand. But don't confuse it in the morning when inserting your own faux tooth!

Tahoe Driftwood Bird, Nessie
 
The Sierra sun and the waters of Lake Tahoe fashioned this piece of driftwood, discovered on the Nevada shore in the early spring at Secret Harbor, 2007. Fate took her a few years later to the Bay Area , California, where a master jack-of-all-trades stained, waxed and buffed her for a perch atop a small brass rod mounted on the rock you see. For sale now sans rock, and shipping from Italy where she is not at home. (She doesn't like her rock! Picky, picky.) Proceeds go to the Rescue the Master fund, solely dedicated to helping the one who brought Nessie to life as a unique nature sculpture. The master is currently living penniless in a very expensive neighborhood, a housesitter with medical problems and bills not to be believed. Restore a bird to happiness and terra firma US, or Scotland; help save a soul from the nightmares of homelessness and medical bill hell.

Porcupine quills for quillwork, art projects, costumes, artifact replicas
 
TEN 5-10" quills retrieved from discontinued porcupines and surplus finds along game trails in the Umbrian hills. The camo colors of dark brown and cream do not hide very sharp ends, which can prick your nodes, or noodle, of creativity. Appreciate as is or incorporate into something exceptional of your making.

M/S FRANCA C The Costa Line, Coin Tray
 
Imagine the world's first first-class-only, year-round luxury cruise ship, and the steward returns to your table in the Club lounge with your change on this small but elegant tray. You tell him to keep the change but you keep the tray! Here it is recovered from the shipwreck of a life on board and off. Probably silver plated with patina from use and age, 12 by 12 cm - 4.7 in by 4.7 in. Grab it and deliver something small and special for that someone, who will embrace you and thank their lucky stars they have someone as thoughtful and imaginative as you. History of the M/S Franca C here at http://www.ssmaritime.net/mvFrancaC.htm.

Miniature, Italian Country Casale on gold leaf
 
Subtle, simple, yet striking and elegant miniature of a country casale, 8 cm by 8 cm - 3.1 in by 3.1 in. Wood frame, glass, recessed painting. A quick look makes you want to enter into that gold countryside and reside in the brilliant light of Italian sunshine. Be careful where you hang it. Can easily disappear with that familiar but covetous guest who just popped in and said not to bother, he would let himself out. Untitled as was your low-life visitor. A delightful masterpiece. Watch for it on eBay to recover if "lost.".

Communist era pocket knife with leather case
 
Svata left Czechoslovakia in the mid-'60s for Austria/Hungary and eventually South Africa. His secret departure in the night was revealed to his family by his nephew four days after the fact way back then. Forty plus years have passed, and last year Svata has too. I didn't have the opportunity last summer to return his knife personally to him, and now I guess he no longer needs this memory from a childhood and youth during communism, if he ever did. I met him once and was indeed impressed by this deeply private man. I am not even related, but soon his story and that of this pocket knife, longer than I can recount here, will die with me. Claim it, and I will tell more of what I know, including the redemptive story of his last years. Perhaps these things will touch your heart as they have mine. And made me a better, more thankful person.

Wood nymph's node, companion for a mystical journey

Discovered deep in the woods of the Riserva Naturale Monte Rufeno in 2012, an auspicious year, this unique, mystical node is a priceless treasure. Unfinished except for a light cleansing in a cold Umbrian stream, this delicate node will guide your interior journeys with the flame of a bees wax candle, or show you deep secrets with an uncut crystal retrieved from the nearest granite quarry. Place either in the hollow to be seen from a distance of one meter and situate in a sacred space inside your home, and your magical adventures will begin and cosmic insights will flow. Fireflies might even appear after an hour of staring at the crystal.

Great as a gift or as companion as you meditate or practice yoga. For those who wish to forgo any being or seeking, return the node to a secret place outdoors for discovery by the next curious or chosen one, or put a light coat of satin finish varnish on it and watch the node slowly consume itself in its own narcissistic regard.

Beware. Irreplaceable and combustible. Node candles long to mate with other materials, such as the wooden node itself, if left untended. So remain present with it, and as the flame flickers and sometimes leaps with energy, absorb.

About the size of a large man's two fists held next to each other. But fragile, like a sensitive heart.

PF 2003

For those not familiar with this abbreviation, PF in this context does not refer to:

+ Page fault, a type of error in computer programming;
+ Power factor, or cos phi, of an AC electric power system;
+ Purple fringing, a type of chromatic aberration in + photography;
+ Pheasants Forever, a non-profit habitat conservation organization;
+ Polar front;
+ PF Flyers, a brand of shoes;
+ Project Fanboy, a comic book news web site; or
+ Plantar fasciitis, an inflammatory injury in the midfoot.

But it does refer to Pour féliciter, from French For luck, used traditionally on New Year's cards.

There you have it. My non-religious yet obscurely spiritual wish for you and all of us.

Plus, may the Kosmos embrace us all and give us love and peace this year and always.