Wednesday, March 09, 2005

You Are History!

~ While we spend our lives trying to make a name for ourselves, it is history that has the ultimate say about how we will be remembered. It is not so much what we have accomplished, as to how historians record our deeds. History can be accurate
or not. At times history can be cruel and ironic in its depictions of our life stories. Remember, it isn't you who makes history, but the one with the quill and quire. Take for example the following:

~ You are Rudolph Valentino, a famous silent film star. They sing about and name after you a reindeer with a nose shiny and bright.

~ You are Napoleon Bonaparte and almost conquered the world. You are remembered how? Why, they name a dessert after you!

~ Rule most of the civilized world of your time, and be assassinated by your friends, Julius Caesar, and you have a salad named in your honor.

~ You are Bette Davis, a glamorous movie star, and yet you are remembered just for your eyes because of a song sung by Kim Carnes, "Bette Davis Eyes."

~ Become a famous movie star and ask us to come up and see you sometime, and wouldn't you know it, Mae West, you are known for a Navy life jacket.

~ You tried to raise your son Paul Tibbets to be something, and what does he do? He drops an atomic bomb on Hiroshima killing 100,000 people, and he rewards you by naming his B-29 bomber after you, Enola Gay.

~ Charge up a hill in San Juan and become President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt and you gain the distinction of having the teddy bear named after you.

~ Bear a Messiah and a pop singer, Madonna, takes a name you are known by.

~ You, Arthur, were the king of Camelot. Are you remembered for the Round Table or Excalibur? They honor you instead by naming a PBS cartoon character after you.

~ You gain fame in a beloved comic strip, and they name the Peppermint Patty candy bar for you.

~ You are a well known District Attorney who had the misfortune to try clients of Perry Mason. You are immortalized, Hamilton Burger with a fast food sandwich, the hamburger.

~ Well, no one ever said that history was fair. In the end, we have no control of how we will be remembered. We can only live our lives as best we can and hope history remembers us as such. If you happen to know a scribe who records history, it might not hurt to slip him a c-note or two. (Nudge, nudge. Wink wink.)
~
No. 71

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