It depends if you're trying to get to the promised land or if you're just trying to get by

As I've mentioned before, I've never really liked learning about History. Actually, I just don't like learning about battles. Strategies of war don't interest me, because I'm a crazy hippie liberal who would rather doodle peace frogs than turn them into road kill with my military Hummer. It's for this reason that, to fulfill my History gen ed requirement, I took Women and the American Experience, in hopes that learning about a relatable, non-domination centered version of History would endear me to the subject more. In response, History gave me a 400 page book about cloth, so I guess I'll just have to accept what is apparently a mutual animosity.

It has been interesting, though, to learn that the portrait of the subservient, intellectually inferior, baby making, "woman, where's my sandwich?" female that I'd thought had been deeply ingrained in human consciousness since man tamed the dinosaurs has actually only been an American theme since, like, 1830. I suppose it's pretty human to look at how things are and assume it's how things have always been. Which would imply that there's something wrong with our wiring, considering that in pretty much every facet of life, from geology to culture, things are changing constantly. About the only things that seem to stay the same are math and physics, which are actually also the only two subjects I like even less than history.

Have you ever noticed how figuring things out on a trial-and-error basis usually seems to be a lot more effective than trying to preemptively reason things out? It's about the only way you can be 100% sure of whatever you're trying to be sure about. But have you also noticed that learning on a trial-and-error basis and learning things "the hard way" are the exact same thing? Except learning things "the hard way" is scorned as the learning method for people who don't know how to listen. Maybe the people who touch the stove to know that it's hot are, rather than deaf, actually just innately drawn to the most sure-fire way to remember things.

"Why me?"
"...Why you? Why us for that matter? Why anything? Because this moment simply is. Have you ever seen bugs trapped in amber?"
"Yes."
"Well, here we are, Mr. Pilgrim, trapped in the amber of this moment. There is no why."