THE RETURN

Our return trip was long and uneventful, lacking the interesting stops that had marked the Missouri to Mexico leg.  I found myself lapsing into a reverie in which my mind was almost exclusively focused on Mexico and how different its culture was from my own.  Even at that young age, I was certain that what I had seen in Mexico was unique in terms of its contrast to the Anglo culture of which I was a part.

I also found myself wondering what forces in history were responsible for making Mexico such an incredibly interesting country and yet, at the same time, such a difficult place to understand..  Little did I know at the time that I was on the verge of a journey that would lead into decades of pondering the the dynamics of history and how various cultures are accordingly aligned and differentiated.  Could it be, I thought, that history is nothing more than blind chance that established the cultural parameters that I found so interesting?  But, somehow, that did not satisfy me,  as I concluded that there had to be much more to account for cultural differences and their consequences for nations, societies and civilizations.

Although I could not realize it at the time, I was in effect embarking on an effort to understand history as something much more profound than the rote memorization and recitation of names, battles, governments, dates and assorted events.  In reality, I was yearning to get at basic causes and effects.

The history classes I was required to take in secondary school were totally unsatisfying, although I was able to excel grade-wise.  My only consolation was my best friend, who today is an honored emeritus professor of history in a state university.  Our mutual interests enabled us to delve more deeply in the meaning of history than was possible through the prescribed syllabuses of the public schools.

Looking back, I see now that my curiosity would lead me to the smorgasbord of historical interpretations and explanations, eventually propelling me into undergraduate and graduate programs in history and compelling me to seek a career in higher education.  On the way, I attempted to apply a myriad of schools of thought to my understanding of history in general and of Mexico in particular.

By my second year of college, I thought I could best see history as the working out of a divine plan, that the prime mover was a source of will that determined what would be the outcome of human history and how mankind would be affected by what was basically inscrutable.

Later I would be impressed with the idea that history was an organic process,  a macrocosm of the life-force driving human beings through the endless challenges of existence.  But, then, I wondered about the effects of the talents, ambitions and drive of solitary individuals who were themselves engines in moving history.  Indeed, the power of individuals to affect the course of history is endlessly replicated to the point that some would say that those who have been seen as gods and goddesses on this earth may be accounted for as being humans who performed great deeds somewhere in the mists of time, ensuring their immortality and eventual deification.

In rhythm there is point and counterpoint.  The same principles could be said to hold sway in the  constant clashing of ideas, religions, ideologies and economic forces that have been present in the ongoing march of history.  In this regard, the essence of history could be seen as a universal cycle that repeats itself almost mechanically in multiple settings and times.

I considered, also, if explanation could not be forthcoming by a strict recounting of natural phenomena and how human beings and their undertakings might have been fundamentally affected by climatic changes and such natural occurrences as droughts, hurricanes, floods, ice ages, famines, glaciation, and desertification.  Indeed, history is full of the waxing and waning of human progress over thousands of years owing to such forces.

I would, in succeeding years, equate names with ideas and fill my mind with the likes of Burke, Braudel, Ortega, Ranke, Toynbee, Marx, Thucydides, Seneca, Lucretius, Carlyle, Kirk, Kant,  Diamond, Voltaire, Croece, Vico, Machiavelli and others.  However, in retrospect,I feel it is safe to say that  I would never had familiarity with such names and ideas if it had not been for a trip into Mexico that a twelve-year-old took with his father.