Antietam and D-Day

I was watching a rerun of Ken Burns' PBS documentary "The Civil War" the other night. During a break in the film, Burns was interviewed and was discussing the Battle of Antietam which took place on September 17, 1862. It was a horrific fight and Burns commented that there were more casualties during that one day battle than during D-Day 82 years later.

What knocked me out wasn't the statistics of the 2 battles; I'm familiar with them both from history classes. What got me was the "82 years later" comment. I think, as I get older, my perception of fathomable time periods gets shorter (i.e., I still can't grasp the idea of a million years. It's totally out of my frame of reference. But 82 years is quite manageable). I have friends I've known more than 30 years, a thought unimaginable to me when I was younger.

I consider WW II part of recent history as it ended less than 2 decades before I was born. The Civil War, on the other hand, always seemed like almost ancient history. But in the great span of history 82 years is but the blink of an eye. And when you think of the wars that came between these two it really seems we are a species almost constantly in bloody conflict, separated by short moments of relative peace.

It reminds me of a joke I heard recently:

A man is talking to God. He says, "God, you are all knowing, all powerful, and eternal. Tell me, God, what is a million years to you?". And God says, "To me, a million years is but a minute". So the man says, "And tell me God, what is 10 million dollars to you?". And God says, "10 million dollars is less than a penny to me". So the man says, "God, can I have a million dollars?". And God says, "Sure, in a minute".