Seeking ‘a glorious past’ to better face the future

In Lover's Leap State Park, New Milford, Conn.

—Photo by Bob P. B. - https://www.flickr.com/photos/7272600@N06/21939948784/

“A man rising in the world is not concerned with history; he is too busy making it. But a citizen with a fixed place in the community wants to acquire a glorious past just as he acquires antique furniture. By that past he is reassured of his present importance; in it he finds strength to face the dangers that lie in front of him.’’

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“Opinions about the future of society are political opinions.’’

—Malcolm Cowley (1898-1989), writer and editor best known as a literary historian. He lived in New Milford, Conn.

Ya gotta live there

Spring view of the Sherman, Conn., end of Candlewood Lake with Candlewood Mountain

“The country towns here in New England all bear a family resemblance to one another, but they also have individual characters that can be learned only by living in them.”

— Malcolm Cowley (1898-1989), in “Town Report 1942,’’ in The New Republic. He was an American editor, historian, poet and literary critic. He was a resident of the western Connecticut town of Sherman for the latter part of his life. The town was rural then but now is more exurban.