Human Nature simply doesn't change
one of the things I find fascinating about history and archaeology is that from our early ancestors right on down to our own urbane modern polished selves, human nature simply doesn;t change that much. Sometimes this is a bad thing, but more often I find it comforting, endearing. I love the sense one gets that five thousand years ago for example some woman put on her best clothes and make-up and went out to meet a bloke she hoped would finally propose that night. Or some father anxiously watched his children as they entered adolescence, hoping they wouldn;t get led astray by the adult world and choices opening to them and wishing he could protect them longer. Strip away all ritual and religion, and what you ahve is the core of humanity; our hopes and dreams and fears. The rest are simply the trappings around them by which we seek to make them tangible or protect ourselves from thigns going wrong.
And of course if there is one factor of human existance that will never change its that no matter how noble and grand and significant the edifice the ordinary joe soap who has to build the damn thing takes his pleasure and his comfort where he ca, And noone throw a party like a bunch of bulders!
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article2201086.ece
The Weekend
My shoulders ache from hauling rock
each huge unyielding building block
the high priest is an awful fool
and the foreman really isn't cool
I've worked from dawn for days and nights
put up with cold and whips and slights
but come tonight I'll be just fine
if I have some food, a wench, some wine!
This stone circle will ne'er be built
I've had this project up to the hilt
but if I work like a dog all day
I'll party all the night away!
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