De Tocqueville: ‘History a gallery of pictures in which there are few originals and many copies.’
Dictionary-based speaking, History is the discipline that studies the chronological record of events (as affecting a nation or people), based on a critical examination of source materials and usually presenting an explanation of their causes.
Each nation’s history gave authentic identity to its partaking citizens and to the nation itself. It helps in embracing more of the culture, values, traditions and norms our forefathers had enriched and heredited to us.
Our country’s history also gives us chills and amusements towards our heroes whose bravery, resilience and valor reigned as they all fought for our Inang Bayan. Hence, they are all must be commemorated annually and whenever we sing our National Anthem with honor and pride.
On the other hand, History, in this point in time could possibly be related to several aspects and/or which way should we wish to define and use it. The word could either be a sort of an album or scrapbook with details inside wherein few may be originals and the latter may be copies in numbers.
History could also be a simple story—that has series of events, and when retold, the probability of being revised and changed is high at risk— the thought and the chronological order have also chances to be altered. But there are stories that had been told to us countless times and will forever and always lived into our beings without revisions and had became our bases in living.
Moreover, De Tocqueville might also tell us that we have different personalities which make us unique. We are going to meet (new) people—different universes in different bodies. They all have something to tell us, and vice versa. We may choose whether the things that we had shared to one another either be retained or be neglected or forgotten.
Furthermore, it could also infer that “Art is dead.” The artworks and masterpieces nowadays are becoming mainstream from varied ideas of previous artists and artisans. There are no longer original ideas. Mostly are already becoming copies from the famous masterpieces we are studying in our Art classes.
Nonetheless, we should always remember that History will always be true to some and not for few. It would go and pass on generations to generations, and we must secure that the stories that we set forth to their knowledge are those with bases and not with what we just only want to affixed to them.