The Stories From 1975 On Are Not

I Have Come To The Realization That History Is Not A Fixed Thing, A Collection Of Precise Dates, Facts And Events (even Cogent Commencement Quotes) That Add Up To A Quantifiable, Certain, Confidently Known, Truth. It Is A Mysterious And Malleable Thing.

We Strain To Listen To The Ghosts And Echoes Of Our Inexpressibly Wise Past, And We Have An Obligation To Maintain These Places, To Provide These Sanctuaries, So That People May Be In The Presence Of Forces Larger Than Those Of The Moment.

The Reason Why You Do History, And Particularly Why You Do War, Is That You Want To Make Sure That In The Next War, Some Lessons Were Learned. There's A Saying: "history Doesn't Repeat Itself, But It Does Rhyme." Or Ecclesiastes: "what Has Been Will Be Again. What Has Been Done Will Be Done Again." Human Nature Always Superimposes Itself - Its Strength And Its Frailty Over The Rush Of Chaos Of Ongoing Events - And We Can Perceive Patterns And Themes And Motifs.

The Flame Is Not Out, But It Is Flickering.

I Have Made A Film About Jazz That Tries To Look Through Jazz To See What It Tells Us About Who We Are As A People. I Think That Jazz Is A Spectacularly Accurate Model Of Democracy And A Kind Of Look Into Our Redemptive Future Possibilities.