Historian, raconteur and my good friend Pete Savin recently posted one of his videos on the ruins of Aescica, a fort along Hadrian's Wall. Good stuff, and a reminder of green fields that are for this year out of reach for me.
It features prominently a landmark that I've been to myself, a Roman altar still standing in the middle of the ruins. Oh, it is in tough condition, only vague shapes and no text have survived. And to be perfectly honest it spent long centuries in the "horizontal and nibbled on by moles" status, presumably being put upright again after excavations in 1894. But today it stands free, and as in Ancient Times passersby leave coins on it as votive offerings.
It's a picture that would make sense to a person nearly 2000 years ago....and to one today. But for how much longer? For roughly 80 or 90 generations people could in theory walk up to this, place a coin atop it for good fortune and walk on. How many generations before this no longer makes sense to people?
Commerce has changed. After barter became inefficient coins were the sole medium of exchange. Paper bills supplemented it for a relatively short time, then we began pushing around little rectangles of plastic. And now? You can wave a "device" to transfer wealth. And if a person from ancient times had difficulty understanding the concept of Bitcoin I at least would be in sympathy with their incomprehension.
How do we journey through this world? On foot, in our silent electric chariots? Or whizzing by virtually on our way to somewhere else? What moments, if any, of reflection do we have along the way? What powers beyond our ken do we propitiate, and what is the nature of our votive offerings?
Not long now until another virtual Jet Lag Drinks hour. And some of these questions are too ponderous and frankly too crabby even to consider over pints as we sit magically in our own domiciles and Mercury, swift messenger of the gods, sends our voices and images instantly across seas and far horizons.
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