Nescire autem quid antequam natus sis acciderit, id est semper esse puerum (Cicero).
τὴν ἀνθρωπηίην ὦν ἐπιστάμενος εὐδαιμονίην οὐδαμὰ ἐν τὠυτῷ μένουσαν ἐπιμνήσομαι ἀμφοτέρων ὁμοίως (Herodotus, History 1.5).
Carl Springer, “Koehler” presented Ft. Wayne 2014: Our inveterate positivism, no doubt, has something to do with our “Americanness.” We speak of the “American Dream,” after all, in describing our collective, historical aspirations, and not “the American Nightmare,” even though the latter term might accurately describe the situation in which many Americans find themselves today. Most often we envision ourselves, in our individual lives and as a people, and as a church, too, facing the future, preparing ourselves for what is next, only rarely looking back. The ancient Greeks, by contrast, more pessimistic in their outlook on life, but also perhaps more honest, imagined themselves moving into the future with their back to it and their face always presented to the past. They “backed into the future,” as it were.[1] Such a view is consonant with the persistent Scriptural calls to remember, to return, to repeat, to repent. “Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations; ask your father, and he will show you; your elders, and they will tell you” (Deut. 32:7). After all, the only thing that we have even the remotest chance to see clearly is where we have been. The future is inscrutable. The present trickles through our fingers the minute we try to grasp it. But the past, mysterious as it can be, is able to be studied.