On Friday in class, we learned about Paul Revere and his night ride from Lexington to Concord. We read the famous poem and then we talked about the actual events of the ride. It was, in reality, much different than the poem depicted. That was pretty shocking because I kind of felt like we have all been lied to. I guess that that is just how poetry and creative writing works, though. Comparing the poem and the actual events was interesting because it just goes to show how easy we are to believe things, and also how easy it is to alter story. Going through the differences made me start to think about what is actually true with a lot of things in history and even today. How do we know what is the truth and what is mere fiction?
Today in class, we focused on the brain and points of view combined with memory and the way that the brain completes our thoughts. We listened to a lecture on ted.com about a man convicted during a drive-by shooting. He was convicted based entirely off of eye witnesses, not hard evidence. Not even a car was identified in the investigation. It was strange because the lecturer was talking all about how the brain completes thoughts for us, and combines memories to make everything make more sense to us. This applies to the "shot heard round the world." Today, it is easy to find tons of documents recounting the events of that April night, and they all contradict each other. This makes it almost impossible to find the truth. If all the American colonists are insisting that a British soldier fired the first shot while at the same time every British soldier takes it to their graves that the Americans were the ones that started it, how are we supposed to know the truth? I think that it's cool that today, we get to take in all of the information we are given and are able to form our own opinions and versions of what happened in history, even if it might not necessarily be true.
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