History Makers
History Makers
by Kelp
Billions have lived and billions have died,
Populating our planet and then passing from it.
A few hundred perhaps have made their mark
As enduring figures of history.
These are the ones that changed the world,
These are the ones that had the power,
These are the ones that mattered or matter,
And the rest of us are of little consequence.
What really matters are these few great ones
Whose names appear in the history books.
This is what we have been taught
And this is what we’ve been led to believe.
The Napoleons, the Churchills, the Hitlers, the Christs;
The kings and the conquerors,
Artists and innovators,
Explorers, philosophers,
The ones with ideas,
Who could harness technology
And Science
And Truth
And power and might,
Who could stir revolution
Or quash it with force,
The names that we know
Or the stories they told.
But now I think differently
About these historical figures,
These famous players on the stage of history,
That their lives, in the end, may be the least consequential,
That with their God-given talents, their inspiration, their will,
They were the least in control of their own famous lives;
Like marionettes in the hands of God,
They played out a role in spite of themselves,
Like Achashverosh of old,
They only appeared to be the ones with the power,
They only appeared to be in control,
When really the Controller was the one in control.
These great persons whom we venerate
Were merely cardboard figures in a Divinely-fashioned narrative,
Pawns who might have been replaced with another,
If God had willed it so.
And who lives the lives of consequence,
if not these famous individuals?
It’s the billions and billions of souls in the world,
Each one with a story, each one with a will,
Each one trying to work with their abilities and their disabilities,
To survive the challenges of existence,
To make a home and raise a family
And contribute in some way to their community.
Each with choices to make and the freedom to make them.
These are the subjects of the stories that are told
By the ones that we call the famous ones.
It’s their loves, their struggles, their triumphs that really count,
That make up the history of humankind,
The billions that have lived and the billions that have died,
Populating our planet and then passing from it.