I have argued that we face unusual, even unique, challenges as human being and historians in the modern western world inasmuch as we both live in fragmented societies that lack cultural coherence and have unprecedented opportunities to understand and shape our world.
To take advantage of those opportunities, though, to make our way through life's complexities, past and present, requires two broad sets of characteristics or practices.
First, we must resist closure. All of our histories are open to revision. There is no such thing as a definitive history of any important event or process, just as there is no definitive understanding of what it means to be a good spouse or parent or citizen. As we learn more, we usually get closer to the truth. But the truth remains elusive.
To accept this uncomfortable fact of the human condition requires steering between the temptations of certitude and cynicism. There are many people who seem sure of everything. There are many of us who seem not to care about anything. Our job is care and to act even as our understandings and beliefs remain open to revision. That is not easy, and it is not how our ancestors lived. But it is where we find ourselves.
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