Perhaps I’ve been affected by Buddhist philosophy or perhaps it’s just wisdom that comes with age, but it’s hard to escape the temporal quality of existence. Huge cities, temples, and places of education come but are erased with the mere passage of time. Some civilizations peak but eventually, always, the importance moves to other regions. Humans stumble around thinking they are the end result of progress but in fact, all they know will one day be lost or considered irrelevant.
Today I looked at enormous rocks that once created walls and shrines that time has tossed around and that gigantic trees now straddle. I saw temples of such scope that their grandeur still amazes but they are no longer living places; they are simply empty husks no longer connected to the lives of those who once inhabited them. One temple in particular made me feel sad. I was overwhelmed almost to the point of tears. Bear in mind, I’m usually a pretty butch guy. I saw the crumbling walls, the forgotten effort, and the dead dreams of some ancient peoples.
Life is not one continuous procession of progress. History lurches backwards as often as forward. We think of ourselves as the end product of linear evolution. A few centuries ago, though, European power shifted to the Americas, and now a newer shift is rapidly rejuvenating China. Some life grows and old things dwindle.
This process shouldn’t really make me sad at all; it is, more simply, what makes me a part of humanity.