Musings from the Ozone

Archaeology is a fascinating subject.  Some have laughed at the seriousness of the study of ruins.   One  joker was to have said, "What's the point of one old fossil digging up another old fossil?"  However, archaeology is  the scientific study of ancient cultures through the examination of their material remains, for example, buildings, graves, tools, and other artifacts usually dug up from the grounds.   Certain characteristics are important for an archaeologist to have.  One of the most important characteristics  he or she must possess is patience.   If you have ever seen a documentary on an archaeologist dig, you would be astonished at how caring and gentle the archaeologist is with his find. They have very finely honed tools, and will dig with their hands in some places as to not break some important find with rough tools.   They value the past and desire to know what it held.  Ruins to them are beautiful.

America has some ruins from the past but, in my opinion, none of them seem to be of magnificence as are the European and Greek ruins.  Ours ruins would be mostly of the native Indian world. Our natural disasters and catastrophes such as the Katrina hurricane, or  9-11 are quickly fixed and such damage eventually gets repaired.  Buildings are restored, or completely demolished  We just do not let our 'ruins' lay untouched.  Quickly we run the bulldozers and wrecking balls to take down anything that is left standing in a marred condition.  The demolition crew with its TNT can blow a building out of existence  in just minutes.  Their rational says that  land must be used again in a more lucrative and useful manner.  I guess we may pride ourselves on our puritan roots,  for we practice conservation of the land; that is,  we are quick to reuse it as we see fit.  The thought  that some archaeologist in the distant future would paw through the layers of civilizations of America is almost unthinkable!

 Europe has structures that are still standing for over hundreds of centuries, and many of them are in the various stages of their decay.  Ruins can be caused by somebody or something that has destroyed them.  The things that destroy buildings or cities, are  mostly natural calamities such as earthquakes, hurricanes, tornados and fires caused by lightning.  Some fires that are out of control can be strong enough to destroy a whole city.  The archaeologist is able to determine the tragedy that wipes out a civilization. Some of these  ruins that remain are colossal in size and with vines climbing up on the sides and grass growing around the rocks, they can take on a mysterious and spooky look.

In particular, I am thinking of a very special ruins in York, England.  It had been a Roman Catholic church, and as such would be still standing, had it not been slated for destruction  by a maniac King.  It was a fabulous structure and for 450 years, St. Mary's was the wealthiest and most powerful abbey in the North of England.  It was also the largest and richest Benedictine establishment in the north of England and the abbots were famously decadent. The abbey featured heavily in the early medieval ballads of Robin Hood, with the abbot usually as Robin Hood's nemesis.   However, the beautiful abbey was destroyed during the Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII around 1540 and the anger of this crazed King was unmatched. 

The reason King Henry VIII called for its destruction was simple.  Rome was still the central point for the Catholic church at the time of King Henry VIII  He was a man gone berserk  from the absolute power he held.  He wanted to get a divorce from his wife because she did not produce an heir for the throne, but the catholic pope withstood the pleas of the King.  In fact, he declared that he would be excommunicated should he put his wife away.  Angry at the verdict, King Henry decided to break away from Rome and begin his own national religion or church…the Anglican church.  Although this is a condensed version of the wicked behaviors the king manifested, he was a nefarious  king  with much blood on his hands.  He had the queen beheaded and then he remarried.  In a retaliatory  act of vengeance to the Pope in Rome, he had all of the catholic  church buildings destroyed by fire.  Of the many edifices destroyed, the beautiful St. Mary's cathedral was chief among them.

Walking through the ruins of such a stately, once-magnificent structure leaves one with an eerie sense of sadness.  In fact, all of the great ruins of Europe can do that to a person, but the extra sense of weirdness at seeing this lonely piece of architect is the knowledge that a  deranged man, rather than a natural catastrophe, caused the destruction.  This article is not meant to raise a discussion of whether a certain religion is wrong, or whether its buildings are wrong, it is simply the idea that ruins are reminders of many things.   You can not come away from a ruins such as this  without feeling many mixed emotions.

We are getting older.  We are not as agile, mobile and able to work physically as much as we did in days gone by.   It is entirely possible that there are younger members of society who covet your position and would put many of the elder members on some shelf, if they could.  Generally, the older person acquiesces to the youth by stepping down first.  Many times they will stay on the job solely because they have no one ready to replace them.  In a dismal tone, I must ask some questions;  how do the youth look at us?  Are we to be considered the ruins of a society?  Are we still giving anything back to society, even if we are in a broken down condition? Do people look at us and say, "What a shame,?" or do they look at us and say, "They were so magnificent-- in their day!"  We may come to a place in life when our minds fail us or we become withered and wrinkled.  If we are not useful in any particular physical sense, should we be depressed about it?  Although our physical condition is the sagging, physically weaker and worn out version of our being, are we defeated in our spirits?  I say no, for when we have lived a life that has been altogether lovely; a life lived for others and the Lord, people can remember your life and say "What a wonderful Christian monument they are!"  We still have stories to tell.  We still have the young generations looking to us for examples and encouragement.  Our physical body may be in ruins, but we are still beautiful!