Posted on Facebook on 15 July 2016.

It is the evening before we go on holiday, my girlfried and I, the same holiday as we made 30 years ago. We know the outcome of history and we do not want it to change even a bit. In fact, we knew the outcome back then, too. We were not married officially, but for ourselves we were. And so we are, still, and will be.

I study history to become aware of the trends in it. Once I see them clearly, it is not difficult to foretell the future in its broad outline for a few years to come.

I find myself studying certain periods of history over and over again. I know the outcome of those periods. I have however caught myself on hoping that one day, when I study a certain period again, the outcome will be different. Just like a good storyteller will do, who gives a familiar fairy tale a different ending. I did that for my children, at the rare moments that I was very inspired. Hans Christian Andersen even merged fairy tales of old and gave them a different meaning. Children loved him for it.

I would simply love to see some periods in history end diferently. But ... the only period for which I realistically hope that that will happen is the present.

I study history to become aware of the trends in it, so that I know the outcome. Then I want to make sure it doesn't happen that way but a better way. I must strive to be inspired enough to see that better ending too, and make it happen.