So what was your New Year’s resolution?

Did you resolve to lose weight, or to be more patient, or to be kinder to your spouse? The one I liked best was one that few people would fail. She resolved one year not to throw phonograph records at whales.

I think I’m finally going to try to do what my college professor in world history tried to encourage me to do.

I had made a “D” on a quiz. So I went into his office and asked why. All my dates were correct, and all the names and places.

But he said “You failed to draw the implications out of history“.

I didn’t realize that this was a college course, not a high school course.

1066 was the battle of Hastings, when William of Normandy conquered the Anglo-Saxon army. But why give a hoot?

Now we know that because of that conquest, the English language was changed, the English legal system was changed, and it filtered right down to religion and food changing ( well, somewhat!).

The aristocracy became French rather than Anglo-Saxon.

Unfortunately it did not cause the British to drive on the right side of the road. Also, unlike the French, laissez-faire, the “Brits” are still OCD.

So now, what implications are we going to draw from 2020?

What have we learned?