I am so pleased to hear you liked what I sent you. Thank you for telling me.

When I was a child, Will and Ariel Durant’s eleven volume Story of Civilization sat on the bookshelves of my grandparent’s home. I started with their much thinner books, The Lessons of History and The Case For India. After that, I dug in and began volume one, Our Oriental Heritage. Before I finished reading the last volume, I was in my mid-twenties.

Aza, the Durant's wrote the Story of Civilisation almost a hundred years ago. We’ve learned so much since then, I can only recommend The Lessons of History and The Case For India. To tempt you to those two books, I offer you one of my all-time favorite quotes.

“To violate law is to win the admiration of half the populace, who secretly envy anyone who can outwit this ancient enemy; to violate custom is to incur almost universal hostility. For custom arises out of the people, whereas law is forced upon them from above.”

Will Durant, The Lessons of History

The Durants’ work fell into obscurity, but not their lessons. Just a few years ago, Taylor Sheridan wrote these words for the main character and narrator in his story.

“To import the traditions of the place you fled, the place that failed you, is to condemn the place you seek with the same failures.”

Taylor Sheridan, 1883

Aza, you don’t have time to read all these books, and so I hope you will take the advice of this old white woman who has read them. Trust yourself and turn away from white Christian’s empty promises of rewards in the afterlife. Turn instead, to the past when people dreamed dreams worth building, one brick at a time.

Okay, I’m done philosophizing and advising.