So yesterday was Columbus Day and I celebrated the best way I knew how - I cleaned out my closet. I may not have discovered the new world, but I did find several articles of clothing that must go. Because it was Columbus Day Bo and I continued our discussion that has gone over several weeks. He says that historically Columbus was a failure because he did not reach his stated goal of finding a route to the Indies. I on the other hand think that if I was the kind of failure that Columbus was I would be pretty happy with myself. Even though he didn't discover his route to the Indies he did discover the New World and made it widely know to most of Europe. (I know that it had been discovered before Columbus. Columbus just had better PR.) I doubt anybody is going to remember my name some 500 years after my death. To many other things have been discovered or invented acidentally while searching for what was thought to be the correct goal. Do we call these people failures? No we praise them for what they found! I don't care if Columbus accidentally found the new world or if he wasn't even the first to find it. I'm still going to celebrate Columbus Day.
So what do you think was Columbus a Failure?
1 comment:
You are right to acknowledge Columbus' accomplishment, even if it were serendipitous. Although Columbus was mistaken about the size of the world, he was correct that a continent inhabited by Asiatic people was much closer to Europe, a conclusion he reached through his keen observational skills as a sea captain (e.g. he saw the corpses of American Indians that were not severely decomposed floating in the Atlantic). Columbus' courage, perserverance, faith and outstanding navigational skills allowed him to achieve something that no one before ever had: he permanently bridged the two worlds.
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