I share your sentiment on the piece, but recognize there are two responses here; 1) You have no romance in your soul. 2) You have lost sight of the 'now'. Fo

I share your sentiment on the piece, but recognize there are two responses here; 1) You have no romance in your soul. 2) You have lost sight of the 'now'. For #1, people who transport themselves elsewhere into different times, different places, different people consider this quite satisfying. This is especially true in religious contexts which are short on 'modern' validation. So walking the same path as Christ did to be crucified, traveling the same path as Mohammed to Mecca, burnt offerings in druid shrines, etc. The act of re-creating or 'being in the shoes of' someone whom you know now only in writings. For some brings them closer to that person, it evokes the question "This is what it must have felt like to be <the person being emulated.>". #2 is the one I run into more often though, which is that I don't appreciate the instant in time that is "now." These are the people, these are the smells, these are the feeling (good and bad), these are the sounds, Etc. I have met people who work very hard to "freeze the moment" in their consciousness so that they can use it in their art (be it painting, sculpting, acting, whatever). I don't feel like I have enough spare memory cycles to do that but I recognize that is just me. So this article is written by someone who is trying to connect with a paycheck in a meaningful way, and that means words, at least 2,500 of them, on a topic that is essentially walking from here to there, along a path that a lot of people knew about and walked before. I expect they know their audience and want to connect with people who feel history 'speaks' to them when it is recreated and folks who seek out experiences that they can catalog in some sort of singular way. In that regard I think the author was quite successful.