Odd Man Out

Created with Canva

My husband and daughter are history buffs; I don't share their love for the subject. Perhaps if I'd learned to view history as a succession of stories with colorful characters rather than trying to memorize dates and wars and who was president when, I'd feel differently.

It's not that my teachers didn't try. Looking back, I remember the stories and the enthusiasm my high school history teachers brought to the subject; I just wasn't interested enough to work at finding an angle in. Instead, I concentrated on learning the information, practically in isolation, so I could take first one test, then another. In retrospect, that didn't make sense, and I made things harder than they needed to be.

Sometimes, our government suffers from the same affliction. I never really gave any thought to why the Supreme Court needs nine justices, not eight, but now, it seems obvious. When people seek assistance and resolutions, certain criteria need to be met, and one of those is setting things up so that a tie, which is not a resolution at all, is not a possibility.

Maybe a few of our Congressmen should go back to high school history -- unless, of course, ambiguity is what they were hoping for all along.