February 25, 2019
Dearest Readers,
Welcome aboard, friends. Today On This Date visits the last time Britain was invaded on land and the first black to serve in Congress, Top of the Charts reviews 1984 and Philosophy 101 has a quote from The Lord of the Rings for you.
Cheers!
xoxoxo
Kaitlyn
THE ALMANAC
On This Date:
In 1797 – The Battle of Fishguard, part of the War of the First Coalition, ends after two days, a decisive British victory over France, the last time Britain was invaded by land. The War of the First Coalition was fought between 1792-97 throughout Europe and ultimately resulted in a French victory. The losers didn’t take this very well and the Second War of the First Coalition began the following year.
In 1870 – Hiram Revels becomes the first black to serve in the United States Congress, when he is sworn in, after much debate, to the United States Senate. Revels was elected by the Mississippi legislature to complete an unexpired term of a seat that had been unfilled since the Civil War. Revels would serve until the following March 3 after being defeated for election and went on to serve as president of Alcorn A&M College, now Alcorn State University.
Top of the Charts
#1 songs on this date in 1984:
Hot 100 – Jump…Van Halen (1st of five weeks)
Soul Chart – Encore…Cheryl Lynn (only week)
Country Chart – Stay Young…Don Williams (only week)
Album Chart – Thriller…Michael Jackson (30th of 37 non-consecutive weeks)
– Chart data courtesy of Billboard.
Numbers Racket
10,657: the continuous number of days the US has been at war.
22.034: the number of dollars, in trillions, of America’s national debt. – Source: usdebtclock.org
624: days until Election Day 2020.
Philosophy 101
Do not trouble your hearts with thought of the road tonight. Maybe the paths that you each shall tread are already laid before your feet, though you do not see them.
J.R.R. Tolkien
The Lord of the Rings
One of the questions that has confounded us humans from time immemorial is whether our lives are predetermined, whether or not we have control of our destinies. Quotes like this don’t really help either, because some could interpret the ‘laid before your feet’ line as referring to predestination. It also doesn’t help that religions are fond of saying this diety or that one has a plan for our lives.
We don’t believe The Fates predetermine what is going to happen in our lives: we make our own fate, more than we know. When we look inside for the life we were meant to live and go and live that life, we make good things happen for ourselves. When we are off our path we feel out of sorts and out of touch with the life we should be living.
Maybe the paths that you each shall tread are already laid before your feet…
More than anything, this line means our path is there for the taking. It does not require fretting or worrying on our part, but it does require work, work that is worth doing because it leads to the life we were meant to live, life’s great prize. All that is required is following our hearts and trusting our instincts because they will tell us where to go and how to get there. It frees us to make our time serve us and ensures what is meant to happen in our lives generally does happen.
All we have to do is let it.
J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) was an English writer and poet.