What if I became the first to commit to a subscription to that web site? 
What a nice idea you have proposed for us to ponder.  Thanks.

Ronald L. Whitaker
Athens, OH


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Walter Waddell" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, September 28, 2007 4:51 PM
Subject: 09282048Z07 What If


> My 180-degree panoramic northwest porch view here in Verona, Virginia 
> hardly compares with
> the ambient pleasantness and grandeur of the sweeping vistas viewed from 
> Madison's
> Montpelier, Jefferson's Monticello, or Monroe's Ashlawn-Highland estates. 
> Similarly, my
> life accomplishments, successes, and failures are hardly material for 
> historical note. But
> I believe I did once enjoy something more than these great men may have 
> had either the
> time or opportunity to do so during their occupancy of those great 
> estates.
>
> I keep an old, but beautifully restored, milk box on my porch. My wife has 
> colored it in
> keeping with the porch's décor and weatherproofed it for me. I store 
> varied reading
> material in it and after yard work and on other occasions when I am just 
> enjoying my
> porch; I can reach in to my outdoor library and have, to my mind, some of 
> the best of what
> this world offers.
>
> In preparing the milk box to winter over, I was made to empty it contents. 
> At the bottom
> of the stack were several issues of the Virginia Cavalcade. I thumbed 
> through them and
> remembered that I had read one or two articles from each but had not read 
> all the articles
> from all of them. All of these issues were very recent to the announcement 
> to the magazine's
> death. I had this thought that I had at one time all the intentions of 
> perusing their
> contents; but, upon knowing that the magazine would no longer be a regular 
> in my mailbox,
> I "kinda" gave up -- succumbing to the sin of despair, disappointment, and 
> defeat --
> nothing to look forward to so why bother.
>
> As I write this, I remember the wonderful Virginia stories, the colorful 
> and beautiful
> photographs and art work, and the engaging maps and drawings this magazine 
> brought to my
> mailbox and the pleasure I had enjoying a good read on my very own 
> porch -- again
> something I had that those fellows above may not have had.
>
> James Shreeve said in his "The Neanderthal Enigma: Solving the Mystery of 
> Modern Human
> Origins: "By all appearances, the people of the Upper Paleolithic came 
> into an innocent,
> unexamined world and galvanized it with symbol, art, metaphor, and story. 
> They did not
> simply invent better means of surviving. They invented meaning itself." 
> The rationales for
> the emergence of modern humans are varied and many. "No matter the cause, 
> 40,000 years ago
> our ancestors developed an imagination. They learned to ask, What if?.."
>
> What if: a pool of authoritative, talented historians could submit digital 
> material to an
> authoritative, professionally managed editorial staff?
>
> What if: approved material could be published entirely and only in "html" 
> or "pdf" format
> complete with photographs and graphics and published on a web site?
>
> What if: interested readers could subscribe to that web site and enjoy 
> complete
> "downloading" rights to published material?
>
> What if: interested subscribers could print out that material in a variety 
> of quantity and
> quality forms including, but not limited to, glossy 8 x 10 photographic 
> paper?
>
> What if: interested subscribers could bind or insert downloaded pages into 
> plastic sleeves
> and create their own copy of a magazine?
>
> What if: I could sit on my lowly porch and relish something that former 
> magnificent
> Virginia "thinkers, movers, and shakers" couldn't even imagine despite the 
> splendor from
> their own vistas?
>
> What if: someone has a better idea?
>
> What if: they made it known?