© Albert Bierstadt
Back when I was fifteen, I won a state medal for history and geography. At the time, an extended family member (my older cousin’s husband, a hardworking and successful software engineer) made fun of me, expecting me to only excel at math or strictly science.
© Albert Bierstadt, Among the Sierra Nevada, California, 1868, oil on canvas
But the thing is, a love of these subjects is essentially a love of exploration and discovery, a thirst for knowledge, and a desire to understand:
human origins
human development and connections
human choices and decision-making
the scope and scale of what we’ve achieved
where we have traveled
& specifically at home, in the United States, without a doubt — a love of the frontier. : ) It is guided by a gentle curiosity.
Knowledge is not limited to a singular subject. It is helpful to have deep and specific expertise, no doubt. We live in a specialized world.
However, it is in learning many things that you understand better and better how things work, their origins, how they came to be and most of all, what is possible.