Which of these three will last the longest?
We get older, sure. And, eventually we start to collapse . We settle and lean and slowly take on the nature of a beautiful stone ruins, It happens magically a little bit more each year. That's because we're not made of any of that indestructible manufactured stuff like the plastic garbage that fills all the dumps and oceans with non-disintegrating purposelessnes. No, we age with a beautiful timely decomposure.
We don't 'loose' our composure we 'find' it within that which has crumbled. Our purpose is to let time wear us down like an old stone building or some stately ruins. There, covered with moss and ivy, amidst the fallen down sections, much of the structure is still proudly standing. The sense of place is strongest here.
We seek out these kind of beautiful places in our travels because their mystery has a value far beyond the mere cleverness of novelty or the predictability ‘perpetual’ . We seek a genuine experience that isn’t just trendy or continually modern. So too, a person for whom time has been given a place to do what it needs to do, takes consolation in becoming something other than 'temporarily uncollapsed'.
Those of us who enjoy discovering, or revisiting some stone ruins that remains in an ever-changing state of decay, (rather than preserved in some concrete state of ‘restoration’ ), seem to sense something pleasingly hidden there. We recognize something more than the sum of all its previous parts.
We accept that what is real includes that which is missing. And yes it will always be more of a ruins. There will always be more beauty to be missed . And appropriately all beautiful ruins eventually fade away and become nothing but mist.
John Shaw-Rimmington