 I think heritage can save us. This is a dramatic sentence, one that has bounced around my head for years. I’ve never put it out there like this. Perhaps I didn't fully understand the thought, but more likely, I feared criticism. For years I have fallen prey to the overly cautious nature that putting ideas into the world has taken on. But something recently has shifted. I find myself wanting to be bolder with what I say, with the ideas I put into the world. So...I think heritage can save us. Heritage is what we inherit from the past and what we leave to the future. It describes places, objects, and activities. But it’s also a mindset. It’s a deeper understanding that our current state has been heavily influenced by history. It’s a realization that we let things from the past go that maybe we shouldn’t have. And it’s a consciousness of what we are leaving for our descendants to inherit. Heritage is not just about what we have to gain, but what we have to give. Heritage was my passion before I knew the word to describe it. Something about artifacts and heirlooms always called to me, but so did buildings with complex histories, towns you could feel the past on every street, and knowledge passed down, linking people across time. I became an archaeologist and cultural heritage professional to study the past. But lately I have wanted to push beyond study. I want to do more than just understand and preserve. Heritage is more powerful than we realize and when mobilized, it can have a great impact on humans. That is the kind of heritage work I want to do.  A glance inside boxed heirlooms of mine. These dishes, once used daily by my grandparents, will bring such joy when my kids get older and I can safely bring them back out. I am not the only one.Lately, you can't help but notice the explosion of trends that look to the past more than the future. They are impacting everything from hobbies and parenting to daily routines and even clothing styles. More people are talking about the things we have lost than the greatness of what we’ve gained. They want to recreate childhoods, summers, communities, and whole lives to look like they did before the world careened into something we hardly recognize. Social media accounts highlighting ways to bring back heritage life ways now have millions of followers. Generational change is normal and likely always came with a dose of nostalgia. But this feels decidedly different. A lot of the growth in these movements is fueled by people too young to remember aspects of the past the nostalgic trends link to. But they crave what the past had that the present is starved of. These heritage trends are filled with things that create real community, connection, rest, and authentic beauty. They reflect a near-desperation to turn back the clock to the way things were. This is more than just nostalgia. Today's change is happening so fast that what people are feeling is more than a fleeting attraction to nostalgic things. Its a strong sense that we must do more than just talk about things from the past. We should actively return to them. These feelings are pressed by a foreboding sense that we are being swept away in the mad dash to a more modern future; that the essence of humanity is disappearing. Trends everywhere seem to hint at this deep yearning for things we once considered simply 'interesting history'. Who could have foreseen such a resurgence in producing bread at home, both time consuming and expensive compared to the store-bought version? Meanwhile, the hot parenting style is remaking the old experience of childhood, even if your kid is dangerously unsupervised, full of ticks, and bleeding from both knees (far preferable to the modern mindless screen-zombie). Craftsmanship once shunned as overpriced is now coveted, as those with the money to do so want homes filled with things that actually last, objects forged from imperfect but inspired human hands. Secondhand versions of just about everything, once collecting dust, are in high demand. Granny hobbies like knitting and letter writing are surging. I felt a strange sense of joy when I discovered my third grader was learning cursive in school. I thought this had been removed from the curriculum. Too antiquated to matter. And yet there it is...back again. It is not just on the home front that heritage seems to be taking over. Travel is focusing more on engaging with the past in the places people visit. Heritage tourism is now a $600 billion industry because “travelers have deeper needs to be met.” Increasingly, people want to use their time off to learn more about the world and themselves, rather than relax at the beach. No matter where you look, its clear. We are looking back to figure out how to move forward.  Being a heritage tourist in Romania. Mobilizing heritage.So as more people see the value in heritage, this feels like the time to amplify it. Mobilize it. Grab the attention and interest and show even more people how heritage can make life better. Turn to heritage to look for solutions to problems we are struggling to solve. While the list is long (and I hope to explore more in this blog)...my immediate thoughts where a heritage approach can have outsized impacts include:
Heritage offers novel solutions and interesting options. When we look back, we see that anatomically modern humans have walked earth for hundreds of thousands of years. In that time, they explored and experimented many times over. They created. They crafted. They learned. Of course, some aspects of our human heritage didn't work or wouldn't work if revived today. There is plenty of heritage to leave in the past (here’s looking at you, mumia). But some of it did work. We know some of it impacted humans in a way that we would (and should) welcome today. It’s time to bring that heritage back. As disturbing trends ripple through humanity, as disconnection festers, we need to do something, and we need to do it fast. Malaise and exhaustion are encouraged, intentionally or not, by those who benefit from people too zoned out to change. We need to push back like our lives depend on it. Perhaps they do.  The smell of local strawberries, heritage of a New York State summer. Final thoughts I’ve known for a long time that I wanted to focus my energy on heritage, on bringing forth aspects of the past to solve problems and make life joyful. I’ve wanted to push people (and myself) to consider deeply what we let go of, but also what we are forming for the future. This is the work I need to do. So I am starting to write again, here on this blog. I hope it inspires those who read it. I hope it also helps me stay dedicated to the work I love.
Join me. Read, learn, do something small to bring back heritage that feels good. Teach your kids, your friends, or yourself something that is decidedly old school. Resurrect a ritual from your family or culture that has disappeared. Bake some bread. Write a letter. See how it feels to turn back time a little. I know you will be enlightened by it. This is how, slowly, heritage can save us. Magistra Vitae. Comments are closed.
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