What Do We Really Know?

When dinosaurs looked up and saw a fiery meteorite shrieking into the atmosphere they had no idea their world was coming to an end. And I’m sure Romans couldn’t believe that a thousand years of culture were ending when barbarians were sighted near the gates of Rome. We are often incapable of recognizing or comprehending the important moments of our lives as they happen.

What do we really know? I’m asking this question on the Fourth of July but I’m thinking beyond the birth of our Nation. What do we know about anything? I follow the news and consider myself a political junkie even as I realize that everything I see and hear has been filtered and sanitized by various institutions and organizations before reaching me. When subsequent information leaks out I often feel foolish, so I try not to make snap decisions even though jumping to conclusions is the only exercise I get these days.

In an age where photographs and videos can be altered, when digital experts can show you a T-Rex devouring a man sitting on a toilet, seeing is no longer believing. Expert opinions are often coerced and purchased by the highest bidder. People we once relied on now tell us that poisoned foods are safe and the toys we give our children have been properly tested. Moral authorities we once trusted are now being prosecuted for molesting our children. It’s easy to be cynical at a time when our core beliefs are challenged daily and old assumptions like justice and personal responsibility no longer seem applicable. I shake my head and wonder what happened to the world I knew, and I wonder if I really know anything for certain anymore.

In my fear and frustration that I don’t know this “Brave New World,” a place that seems to attach little value to what I love and cherish, there are some things I struggle to hold onto. I know that I am loved and that I don’t tell people often enough how much I cherish them. I know that no matter how desperate or lonely or sick or lacking in hope I might be, there are others worse off. I know the world has problems but it is still filled with infinite miracles.

On this our Nation’s birthday, I know we are fortunate enough to live in a country rich in resources and possibilities, blessed with an abundance of freedom and diversity. I know that my faith and optimism will support me until a time when we love each other more than we hate our differences, when we will set aside our petty grievances and outgrow the slogan My country right or wrong, replacing it with My country when right, and when wrong to be put right.

Otherwise there isn’t really very much I know. Like I said, it’s often difficult to comprehend the importance of events while they are happening. We often fritter away our time on trivial issues, blind to the forces shaping our lives. Something remarkable may be blowing your way even as you read this. I’m reminded of an entry in King George III’s diary, dated July 4, 1776. He noted: Nothing of importance happened today.

I’ve little doubt that something of importance is happening to you today. Do you know what it is?

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY

Between Your Nose and Your Chin

A fiercely independent people once wanted to govern themselves and worship as they pleased, but first they had to wrestle their country from the control of an overbearing European monarchy. A bloody war was fought, and this collection of states came together to defeat its oppressor and create the greatest military and economic superpower on Earth. I’m not talking about the United States of America. I’m talking about The Dutch Republic.

You might not think the Dutch were ever a superpower, but they were. Their ships out-sailed the Spanish and British, and for a time Amsterdam was the richest city in Europe. Don’t forget that New York was originally named New Amsterdam. Then something remarkable happened. The people of the Dutch Republic all caught a disease that destroyed their country. No, not the plague, but something nearly as bad. The Dutch caught a dreadful fever, a mania for a precious commodity—tulips.

We all associate tulips with Holland, but tulips originated in Turkey and were brought to Europe in 1554. Less than a hundred years later, tulip bulbs were selling for extraordinary prices. The Dutch economy became based on the buying and selling of these flowers. Before the tulip bubble burst, a single bulb in Amsterdam sold for the following:

48 barrels of wheat

96 barrels of rye

four fat oxen

eight fat swine

two huge casks of wine

four barrels of beer

two tons of butter

1000 pounds of cheese

an ornate carved wooden bed

a full suit of clothes

a silver chalice

Quite a fortune for something that today can be purchased for less than a dollar. Then in 1637 speculators could no longer sell their tulip bulbs. Nearly everyone in Holland went bankrupt, including the famous painter Frans Hals. The government tried to save the economy but failed to act aggressively enough, and soon The Dutch Republic was on its economic knees, never to fully recover. The Dutch had a short run on the world stage— about a hundred years. Today, they remain a fine and interesting people, but their days as a superpower are over.

If you see a parallel between what happened to the Dutch and what’s going on in our own country right now, I’m glad. Replace tulips with houses and McMansions and you have the recent recession that has plagued the USA. I don’t pretend to have a solution for our economic woes, but a study of what happened to the Dutch would seem to be in order, otherwise our time as a superpower, our best days, might also be coming to an end. It’s time to dust off an adage: Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it.

It’s time to stop looking for a scapegoat for our troubled economy, and long past the time when we should all come together as Americans to do what needs to be done, even if it means sacrifices.

Here’s a joke a seventeenth century Dutchman would not have laughed at: What flower is between your nose and your chin? Answer: Two lips.