Our life in the chain of life

I had a chrono-moment today when I saw ths headline:

Canada’s last link to Great War dies at 109
John Babcock
by Kenyon Wallace, National Post
Published: Friday, February 19, 2010

“John Babcock, Canada’s last known First World War veteran, has died at the age of 109, the Prime Minister’s Office said last night.”

RIP and thank you one last time.

I remember when I was 11 years old in 1965 and there were many events on TV (black and white, of course) acknowledging the centennial of the American Civil War and the 13th Amendment (1865) and the Emanicipation Proclamation(s) of 1986 and 1863. There were several post-centenarian citizens brought out for interviews and celebration who had been born into slavery and remembered – through personal experience – the actual post Civil War period. I was enthralled. This was a moment where living history and the media coverage was, in hindsight, changing the present since the Civil Rights movement and legislation was then still just an ideal and a battle to be won.

It says something that we can, through personal conversations and experiences, transcend the time of three centuries in a single life. It also reminds me that libraries, by curating the recorded knowledge of time and imperfect memories, transcend Millennia.

And it reminds me why the wonderful database vaults, as they get chronologically deeper and deeper, allow us to see original documents, news as the first draft of history and reframe history from the safety of hindsight.

And that helps make libraries awesome.

Stephen