Looking to History to Face Current Day Challenges

Jas. Townsend (previously), an 18th Century re-enactor and proprietor of Jas. Townsend & Son, Inc., reflects upon current health events by looking at the past. Townsend specifically addresses the current challenge of isolation by explaining that throughout history, people have persevered through difficult times with creativity, ingenuity, and hope of the horizon.

So we live in interesting times. I’ve certainly never seen anything quite like this before. We’ve lived an amazingly peaceful last 50 or 60 years but that isn’t generally normal. … If we dig back into history and of course we study the 18th century …that time period is full of tumult and difficulties especially here in North America… all those difficulties that they had to live through, that’s in our very historical makeup. Our predecessors had to deal with the exact same things that we’ve had to deal with and even worse. We will get through them as a society.

Lori Dorn
Lori Dorn

Lori is a Laughing Squid Contributing Editor based in New York City who has been writing blog posts for over a decade. She also enjoys making jewelry, playing guitar, taking photos and mixing craft cocktails.