Hi y'all.
Here's to you some inspirations 'On History and Writing'. Enjoy.
If you have any questions or comments, please email me.
Until next time - Majken xx
Horses - I: The Mongol Derby
Did you know that every year since 2009, riders from across the world have gathered to race across the Mongolian Steppe? The competition is called the Mongol Derby, and it's the world’s longest horse race. It stretches over 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) and takes the riders through mountain passes and green open valleys, wooded hills and river crossings, wetlands, rolling hills and, not least, open steppe.
Nomadic herder families own the horses used in the race, and the team behind the competition employs the families to host the riders while the race is on.
The whole tabernacle lasts ten days, and each day, riders spend about thirteen to fourteen hours a day in the saddle. However, not everybody makes it to the end; far from actually. Approximately only half the riders end up marching across the finish line in any given year.
The next one is from the 4th to the 17th of August. If you'd like to join, you can read more here.
Horses - II: Saoirse (or: The Dublin horse-men)
In the inner-city parts of Dublin, Ireland, there is a tradition among the working class culture for keeping horses. It’s a tradition that has lasted for many years but now is threatened by a property development boom that pushes out lower-income groups as new and more expensive housing is being built.
The award-winning Irish director Marion Bergin has made the short documentary Saoirse on these inner-city horsemen (while they’re still around!). They are often portrayed in the media as a rough bunch, but as Bergin says, she’s experienced nothing but warmth and friendliness from them. It was such an exciting movie for me to see as I 1) didn’t know anything at all about people keeping horses in a rural area in Dublin, and 2) because the movie is so excellent made - you get a truly authentic feel for these people and the life they live. Highly recommended!
NY Times, 1998, September 16.
How to open your stubborn mind - and what good can come from it
In 1972, the governor of Alabama, George Wallace, made a tremendous U-turn in his way of thinking about morality. Up until then, he’d been called ‘perhaps the most dangerous racist in America’ by Martin Luther King Jr, but in this very year, while he was running his campaign to become the next US President, something happened. Wallace was assassinated, and the attack left him paralysed from the waist down. What happened next was the - perhaps - surprising fact that one of his opponents, Shirley Chisholm, who was then the first African American woman to campaign for president, started paying him friendly visits. According to Wallace’s daughter, Chisholm’s kindness brought Wallace to tears, and soon, his prejudice began to crumble. He sought forgiveness from the African American community and was eventually forgiven by the civil rights leader John Lewis in The New York Times in 1998.
So, the story of George Wallace shows us that tragic experiences can lead to a change of heart. But does the event have to be this earth-shattering before we start to react?
According to this article, the human race is a rather stubborn species. We only rarely change our minds about our deeply held values, and apparently, something quite out of the ordinary, something that truly shakes things up, has to happen before we start looking in other directions for answers. But the good news is that you don’t have to sit around and wait for it. There are things you can do actively yourself. Here are some suggestions:
You can fall in love.
Become a parent.
Learn something completely new.
Go travelling to new places.
Meditate.
(Or use psychedelics.)
So far, so good. But why bother? - you might ask yourself. Why should we seek a change of heart at all? What are the benefits? The thing is that when you have experiences that take you out of your comfort zone, you tend to become less self-centred. Your ego is less active, making you more open to other people’s ideas, values and needs.* [*Philosophers in many traditions – from ancient Greeks to Sikhs – have long identified the ego as Ethics Enemy Number One, the article interestingly notes.]
Overall, being more open to other people and less ego-centric would essentially help the human race live together in a more peaceful and understanding environment, you’d think. However, practising a more flexible attitude can also help you personally, as we inevitably undergo many changes throughout our lives. So why not train your flexibility muscles and be ahead of things?
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‘On History and Writing’ is a blog post from me to you in which I share historically rooted real-life stories from around the world - told in exciting and creative ways - along with thoughts that circle the creative process of writing non-fiction texts. I post an email once every fortnight. If you're not already a subscriber, you are welcome to join the list. Thanks for reading! Majken xx
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