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Nostalgia, on grand and small scales.
Mar. 18th, 2005 01:05 pmThis is neat. (It's the same link ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
storm_dancer has up, or very nearly so.) I'm not saying, 'ooo, the tsunami was a good thing,' but uncovering lost archaeology? Just cool. It reminds me of how much history we're all sitting on, that we don't really know anything about.
Sigh. Human ignorance makes me sad. I always say I'm not interested in people, but that's not entirely true. I really do wish I could have lived for millions of years as a sort of Cosmic Watcher, and observed how human society evolved, how the land has changed, seen the amazing cities that have since been destroyed, mountains and seas that came and went... and live on, and see what's going to happen next.
I think we're all fascinated by this sort of thing, to some extent. If not, why did we all go through that phase when dinosaurs were the coolest thing we could imagine? (I was so convinced I was gonna be a paleontologist in third grade. Then I learned that it didn't mean I'd find nice, pretty, whole dinosaurs like in the picture books, and I grew somewhat disenchanted with it.) There's something aweful, and humbling, and terrifying, about realizing how small we are in the grand scheme of the universe. And these huge, bizarre creatures that lived before us, or concurrently with us, that don't exist anymore... yeah. We could go that way. Some of our civilizations already have, and we'll never know the answer to their mysteries, either.
Time is a funny thing.
Meanwhile, I have done some smaller-scale excavating here at Mom's place.alliath, you'll get a kick out of this: In cleaning out a closet for her, I found a box mailed to me in college. Attached to it was the yellow carbon-copy of the 'package notification slip' that was put in our mailboxes whenever we got a package shipped to us. I'd forgotten those slips; but the instant I saw it, a positively Pavlovian sense of glee filled me. I have a package. Someone sent me something! I remember, now, how excited we all were to see the famous Package Slip(tm) in our boxes at Rhodes. It was the BEST THING EVAR. Funny how, nearly ten years after I've graduated, the sight of one of those package slips still makes me giddy. I guess four years of training accomplished something!
storm_dancer has up, or very nearly so.) I'm not saying, 'ooo, the tsunami was a good thing,' but uncovering lost archaeology? Just cool. It reminds me of how much history we're all sitting on, that we don't really know anything about.Sigh. Human ignorance makes me sad. I always say I'm not interested in people, but that's not entirely true. I really do wish I could have lived for millions of years as a sort of Cosmic Watcher, and observed how human society evolved, how the land has changed, seen the amazing cities that have since been destroyed, mountains and seas that came and went... and live on, and see what's going to happen next.
I think we're all fascinated by this sort of thing, to some extent. If not, why did we all go through that phase when dinosaurs were the coolest thing we could imagine? (I was so convinced I was gonna be a paleontologist in third grade. Then I learned that it didn't mean I'd find nice, pretty, whole dinosaurs like in the picture books, and I grew somewhat disenchanted with it.) There's something aweful, and humbling, and terrifying, about realizing how small we are in the grand scheme of the universe. And these huge, bizarre creatures that lived before us, or concurrently with us, that don't exist anymore... yeah. We could go that way. Some of our civilizations already have, and we'll never know the answer to their mysteries, either.
Time is a funny thing.
Meanwhile, I have done some smaller-scale excavating here at Mom's place.
alliath, you'll get a kick out of this: In cleaning out a closet for her, I found a box mailed to me in college. Attached to it was the yellow carbon-copy of the 'package notification slip' that was put in our mailboxes whenever we got a package shipped to us. I'd forgotten those slips; but the instant I saw it, a positively Pavlovian sense of glee filled me. I have a package. Someone sent me something! I remember, now, how excited we all were to see the famous Package Slip(tm) in our boxes at Rhodes. It was the BEST THING EVAR. Funny how, nearly ten years after I've graduated, the sight of one of those package slips still makes me giddy. I guess four years of training accomplished something!
