Smithsonian articles

I was reading an interesting article in Smithsonian about Marie Antoinette. Traditionally and in the brief historical summary typically given to students, she is reviled as both a lascivious woman and a simp, the kind of moron and aristocatic idiot who said in response to the word that the peasants of France had no bread, "Let them eat cake." This article, which is based on the discoveries presented in a new work by a woman named Maria Antonia which was the basis for the new movie, presents a rounder picture of Antoinette. Among the more amazing revelations were of her move into court politics upon the indecision of her husband, Louis XV, her profound words(*), and her courage and steadfastness in the face of death (**).

*In her trial, she calmly responded to accusations that she had manipulated the king's policies, saying "To advise a course of action and to have it carried out are very different things."
**When she died, she said, "The moment when my ills are going to end is not the moment when courage is going to fail me."

In the end, she died not compromising and having a clear conscience, as opposed to giving in to the fear of men. The historical lessons for me were, first of all, that she was clearly a victim of people's blood lust. She died as a figurehead of the abuses of power of the monarchies that she represented. Hers was an unhappy fate, and it extended to a lot of her family and close allies. Her life was cut short at the age of 38. From the article, you get an appreciation and sympathy for her. She seemed like a very real person, unlike most of the stuff I had heard about her previously. Second, it seemed that media had a large part in "doing her in." The French media was developed to the extent that it had a large and persuasive voice in the society. It had its own agenda and its own political power. And thirdly, it proves along with all other history that it better to lose one's life and do it in a way that one keeps a clear conscience than to live a long life and lose one's soul. "What good does it do a man to gain his life and lose his soul?"

Adventure
Anne Morrow Lindbergh accompanied her husband Charles on a number of pioneering flights. This is her neat take on the adventures she embarked upon: "Travelers are always discoverers, especially those who travel by air. There are no signposts in the sky to show a man has passed that way before. There are no channels marked. The flier breaks each second into new uncharted seas." That has some neat parallels in other forms of discovering, such as traveling by sea or scuba diving into the seas. They each have their own unique risks and bravery required.