History often presents itself as grand, sweeping narratives—wars, revolutions, prominent figures that reshaped the world. But the tiny, easily missed fragments of peoples everyday life holds a different truth than what we’re used to seeing. In some ways, the search for these details feels like reaching back in time and keeping those voices from

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Who we are is where we come from and what we’ve seen and what we’ve said. And what we continue to say. And for so many good reasons, it’s a good idea to write it all down. While you remember, and while you can. Life is always in the particular details, the details that only you actually know.

History can weigh like a millstone; archaic distinctions and practices can drag upon our freedom and agency. But detachment from the past has its own pitfalls. It means that the past that survives is a default genealogy, a mere reflection of the status quo, fixed and irrelevant. It loses its living value, its capacity to help the current generation

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