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| Events carrying a major transformative force may seem to burst on the scene suddenly, but this is an illusion. Years of preparatory groundwork and steady elaboration are required, revealing their significance only after the fact, once the situation's internal momentum has grown to the point that it can no longer be ignored. What if we could sit with Einstein as he worked out his first equations, or with Van Gogh as he made his first crude portraits? Would we recognize genius in its early stages? It would take real intuition to realize that we were witnessing history, or more precisely prehistory, the obscure beginnings of events that would later have a historical impact. |
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| History never originates in the usual places, but in dark corners. Nor does it work its way out from the center. Rather, it strives to arrive there, displacing whatever was there before. What seems on the surface to be a detour from reality, a delerious and futile gesture, a deviant act of significance to no one, may one day triumph over what we presently know and believe. Who can say? I, for one, am certain that I have spoken with, shared meals with, and witnessed the early crude work of at least one individual who will later emerge as a forerunner, a visionary genius. I congratulate myself on this. In a world where history is treated as the private playground of politicians and businessmen, it's nice to see people intent on making their own history, even if it means living unappreciated in the cracks of a society too busy to notice them. That's better than taking a gun and firing at random into the crowd. |
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