gettysburg

Humanity is obsessed with life. The mantras of YOLO and Carpe Diem are modern reflections of the romanticism of living. While breath in the body makes you technically alive, it can be difficult to determine how to frame and fully live a life. There are thousands of blog posts describing how to achieve a life full of vigor, ranging from the electric beat of active community involvement to the mellow refreshment of the quiet life. Whatever path we choose, there is a similarity we all share in life: the desire to commemorate it after death. Through this logic, it is clear that it is natural for funerary art to exist as a way to express an aura of a life dearly missed.

I was twelve when my parents took me to Washington, DC for the first time. It was the first stop on a family vacation where we would be attending the funerals of two of my grandparents. Washington, DC, was the first major historical place any of us had visited. My father connected easily with the heritage we found there. I wouldn’t have a similar connection with history until a decade later.

For a guy like Stan Ellsworth, motorcycles rather than cars are clearly the way to travel.

Most people believe that the United States of America was born in 1776 with the Declaration of Independence. But while that document was vital, it had yet to be truly tested with sacrifice, blood, and hope against its worst enemy—its own people.Only 150 years have passed since this nation experienced the Civil War and eventually emerged as a powerful united force that continues today. Many significant Civil War locations are still accessible to visitors, and five of them are listed below. But many others can easily be visited on the way to or from these sites.