Two separate thoughts here.
First…
Here’s a brief slightly unsettling thought on retirement so far; retirement is AWESOME. Don’t get me wrong – I am very lucky and privileged to be able to retire. However, it’s a somewhat daunting mental transition to go from constant support of kids to doing whatever I want to do.
This monarch butterfly feeding on milkweed on our front lawn got me reflecting: ” it’s nice to be helpful.”
That’s probably why I started up a new research project (with SP from the Champlain Society Educational Committee) so quickly. The focus will be Canadian nurses in World War One. Fascinating so far.
Second…
I’ve looked at a lot of WWI-era photos lately. This one struck me the most. The power of the camera is inestimable. The camera below belonged to Clare Gass, a Canadian nurse who, like many others , served in multiple locations in Europe during the war, almost always taking photos of her colleagues, patients, surroundings, locals, etc.
What I love about history is the evidence it provides of life in the past. In most of my work as a teacher of world history, the subjects I taught were pre-camera. It is interesting to jump into a camera-enabled time period. The images complement the documents.
It has not yet been one year since I got a smart phone. Without a doubt my favourite feature (other than the time – yes, something so simple) is the camera, to record life as it is.
