Bold, brave, adventurous souls to accompany me on a fateful voyage across uncharted seas.
Final destination? Home—though not the home you’ve left behind, but a place both strange and new.
First few stops? Uncertain. Perhaps off the maps entirely.
Length of journey? Unknown.
Hazards and dangers? Many, from stormy seas to the limits of your own endurance.
Cost to you? Your time, your wealth, and possibly your life itself.
Rewards? Beyond imagining. Glory? Riches? Knowledge? Only God knows what we will find.
Opportunity? The kind that comes once in a lifetime—and changes the course of history.
Will you come with me?
– Christopher Columbus, reimagined in 1491
On this Columbus Day, we commemorate a voyage that shaped the world as we know it—a voyage filled with dreams, uncertainty, and undeniable consequences. While Columbus’s journey in 1492 opened up new worlds to exploration, it also marked the beginning of complex, often painful encounters between civilizations.
History remembers Columbus as a figure of courage and ambition, yet his legacy is deeply intertwined with the hardships and suffering of Indigenous peoples, whose lives and cultures were irrevocably changed. The story of exploration is one of discovery and daring, but it also asks us to confront the full impact of what was "discovered" and at what cost.
So as we reflect today, we honor the spirit of human exploration—the drive to push beyond the horizon, to seek out the unknown. But we must also remember that every journey has its price, and not every discovery is free from consequence.
Will you come with me?
Not just to celebrate the journey, but to embrace the full story it tells.
Happy Columbus Day.
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