If you could turn back the hands of time...

If you could turn back the hands of time, would you? Why or why not? What have you already done today that you wish you could take back or do again? There are people who go about their daily lives hoping and wishing that periods of their lives or events in their past never happened. They wish that it was only a bad dream. The reality is that we cannot change the past, yet most of us have the ability to carve out our own futures. Sometimes witnessing the rise and fall of others serve as examples that assist us along the way.

There is something called the “sociological imagination.” C. Wright Mills, a celebrated contemporary sociologist, suggested that in order to understand this sociological imagination, we must understand the connection between history and biography. Mills stated that history is events that shape an entire society’s values and beliefs while, biography is the individual life experiences within a particular society. Sociologists Williams Thomson and Joseph Hickey posit that the link between history and biography is important and often overlooked. It places individual behavior in a larger social context, reminding us that we are products of history, as well as history makers who help produce and change society through our actions.

Imagine some society without many of the historical periods—World Wars, the Civil Rights Movement, 9-11, and many, many others of the far and recent past. What would society be like with them? Just as I vividly remember, many of you know exactly where you were and exactly what you were doing when, for example, the planes made contact with the towers. For many people, the memory is almost like yesterday, yet this year (2008) marks the seventh anniversary of the attack on the World Trade Center. Though this particular event is a part of United States and world history, biographically speaking, it is also a part of our individual histories.

To provide additional context for better understanding history and its association with biography, take social problems as an example. One of the major social problems in society today hinges on the mindset of individuals. Many times things are viewed as personal troubles (e.g., being a homeless person) opposed to social issues (e.g., homelessness). What this means is that rather than us seeing social problems and how they affect society, we mentally bracket them and place them within society’s specific strata. In this case, we place the blame on the homeless, for example, and see it as their problem, not ours. But how does homelessness help to shape society’s history? A more reflective question that one could ask of self might be, “How does what I do about homelessness fit into my own biography?”

The things we’ve already said and done, we can never repeat at the exact same moment—that moment has passed never to return again. The successes, misfortunes, highlights, mistakes, and honors we’ve made in the past are instrumental in defining who each one of us are today. Don’t forget the past, but understand that we cannot make changes to it. However, our futures are in the future. Therefore, we have an opportunity to lay the groundwork for what will become of it. Sociology teaches us that we are all history makers. Our histories and biographies may not have the profundity of great leaders like President John F. Kennedy or Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., but they still serve a purpose in our lives, as well as the future of society. Today’s decisions will help shape tomorrow. Tomorrow’s decisions will be predicated on the decisions of today. © 2008 Keydron Guinn