The Discovery Of A New World.

I was wondering why we still have a parade each year for Christopher Columbus — if it’s historically well-documented that he was not the first explorer to have stepped foot on American soil. (And that he may not be of Italian heritage.)

The most well known figures from our history lessons would be Leif Ericsson, Jacques Cartier, John and Sebastian Cabot, the Norwegians, the Hebrews, and of late — the Chinese?

And let’s not forget Americo Vespucci who will be remembered as the man after whom America was named. Afterall, until his death, Columbus thought he had reached Asia. At least Vespucci recognized indigenous peoples as being separate from Asia.

Not to digress, but isn’t like that at work sometimes too, isn’t it?

You come up with a great idea, start to plan the execution and before you know it, a brand new initiative takes center stage, authored by a committee of subject leaders.

But what’s this? The marketing strategy looks amazingly like your own “let’s fix the company” plan…but now, Mary gets the credit for her “Let’s REDEFINE the company plan”.

At the end of the day, should it matter who gets the credit? Shouldn’t we just observe the acheivement?

Here’s my prediction: at some point in time, we will cease to recognize Christopher Columbus as the the sole discoverer of America (Chris will get demoted like the Planet Pluto did.)…what we will celebrate in the future will be “Great Explorers of the 1400’s Day.”

Sail on!