So What?

Give this assignment to a kid write an essay about some famous person (like Alexander the Great) and I can predict how the first sentence will read:

"So-and-so was born in . . . and died in . . . "

We adults write the same essay on our tombstone: Martin Luther King, Jr. 1929-1968.

The most grounding and grounded fact about those we want to know about is when they lived and how long they lived.

Knowing when someone lived does give us an immediate handle on what some aspects of that individual's life must have been like. A European born in the 4th or 5th century makes us think of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. The exploits of Kubla Khan may color our thinking when we consider an Asian born in the twelfth or thirteenth century. A native American life lived in th…