I started Present Things Past first and foremost because I wanted to get back to one of my long lost loves: writing. Despite the overabundance of stimuli we have vying for our attention these days, nothing quite strikes a chord for me like the beauty of the written word. So here we are.

 

To borrow from T.S. Eliot, Present Things Past is about a seemingly simple, yet powerfully ubiquitous concept: All Time is Eternally Present. Put another way, Present Things Past is about those cycles of repetition that reappear throughout human histories. Again and again. About reimagining the new through the lens of the old, and vice versa. About situating ourselves in the footsteps of our forebears as we confront some of the same challenges they faced and overcame. About accessing the greatness and humanity of those who preceded us, while charting a course for those who will follow us. If we can approach accomplishing even but a few of these, it will have been worth the journey.

 

I remain insatiably curious about the breadth and variety of lived human experience, both past and present. At my university freshman orientation, Maya Angelou challenged us with a line from Terence: ‘I am human, nothing human can be alien to me.’ Aspirationally, this is the driving ethos behind Present Things Past. Now, on to the writing.