Ancient religious systems tried to manipulate the gods with sacrifices to get them to participate in their story. The Christian faith does the opposite—in Jesus, God sacrificed himself so that we could be part of his eternal story in which every moment, memory, thread of hair on our heads, and fibre of our being is redeemed and saved for eternity.

I have a box under my bed full of objects which hold special memories for me. It contains letters and photos, a champagne cork, a little plastic gun, a lip balm, some beads, a temporary tattoo, a golf tee—all reminders of special moments from my past. Maybe you have something similar. It’s important to many of us to preserve a record of our past. We erect gravestones after loved ones have died and we pass heirlooms down through the generations. But have you ever wondered why?

We also put a lot of time, effort, and money into preserving our collective past. History and heritage are a national preoccupation. England alone saw 20 million visitors to English Heritage sites in 2022, plus more than 5.3 million visitors to National Trust properties. The National Trust for Scotland welcomes 3 million each year to their properties, and Historic Environment Scotland a further 1.2 million. Meanwhile, the British Library keeps a copy of every publication produced in the UK and Ireland and has 13.5 million books in its archives, covering everything from Cicero to Chomsky. But again, why are we so keen to preserve the past?

One reason is often to build on the knowledge and insights of those who have gone before. Scientific discoveries and technological advancements rarely come out of the blue. They’re usually the result of great minds developing ideas of others. As Isaac Newton once said: ‘If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.’ We also hope to avoid disaster by learning from the errors of others. Tim Harford’s excellent podcast Cautionary Tales examines past mistakes and farces to equip us with insight into how we can do things differently in the future. We ignore the past at our peril, as George Santayana famously remarked: ‘Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.’

A less utilitarian reason for preserving the past is to value communities and cultures. We want to recognise the worth of traditions, diversity, and creativity, for example by not letting minority languages like Welsh or Gaelic die out, nor by allowing heritage crafts like woodturning to become a lost art.

But I do wonder whether the main reason we preserve the past is to get a sense of who we are and where we belong in the world. The popularity of TV programmes like Who Do You Think You Are? and websites like ancestry.co.uk reveal our desire to understand the bigger story of our families and communities. We want to know where we fit, perhaps to give us some insight into our character, our destiny, and the meaning of our lives. To truly know who we are, we know we need to understand the past, which shows us where we’ve come from and reveals the bigger perspective of our lives. Appreciating the past gives us a context to understand our present and future.

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