Maira Kalman’s unusual monthly feature profiled Benjamin Franklin’s feverish inventiveness, and the times he lived in. Says Kalman,
Everything is invented.
Language. Childhood. Careers.
Relationships. Religion.
Philosophy. The Future.
They are not there for the plucking.
They don’t exist in some natural state.
They must be invented by people.
(Also worth a read is her profile of Thomas Jefferson and his estate in Virginia).