Plus ca change...

In the February issue of Smithsonian magazine, a new exhibit of artifacts from Pompeii is featured. The defining feature of the Pompeii site is its amazing preservation - archeologists have gleaned incredible detail of the humans in that place and time. The shape of their bodies in their deaths, down to the lines of their mouths, and the outlines of their eyelids. What they were carrying and wearing.

One thing that jumped out at me in this article was the mention of grafitti: there was writing on various surfaces, here and there, that were just like today's grafitti. 'Julius was here'; 'Cicero loves Antonia;' 'blondes are better than brunettes.' Being convinced of the evolution of human consciousness, I was disappointed when I read this. And surprised at my disappointment. I really have believed that people who lived two thousand years ago really were of a different quality than people today. Yet, at the level of the mundane - the level I think would be most effected by a different consciousness - that different quality makes the same material imprint as does our consciousness today.