Earlier in the semester, a lecture was put on to kick off the putting up of a collection of historical artifacts in Jack Tarver Library; the exhibit is fro the collection of Yulssus Lynn Holmes, and is still up in the library. The objects put on display brought to mind within me two philosophical questions: what is the dead owed, and what place does/should religion hold in everyday life?
The first of these questions comes about due to the nature of many of the artifacts: for many of them were figurines, statues, and lamps that were found in Egyptian and near eastern tombs. It got me thinking how people of old would honor their dead. In extreme cases they would build huge monuments as places of remembrance for those who died, but on a mundane level they would place many objects within one’s tomb, in some cases as a sign of having wealth in the life to come. Based on the collector’s lecture, the dead played a much more significant role in the life of the living four thousand years ago than it does today. I wonder why that is: is it merely that we are more irreverent, or do we value this life greater than some other or afterlife? I think that it is the latter. People seem to me to live their lives as though this is the climax of our existence and we should therefore not care about dying or the dead and merely focus on the here and now. Montaigne, however, has a different view: he posits that philosophy is the art of dying, and that death should constantly be on our minds. The ancients obviously thought that some part of this was true, but I doubt that those of us in the twenty-first century live our lives in such a way that we “practice the art of dying.”
The second question that came to mind from this lecture was that of religion in everyday life: for while death does not seem to be prominent, religion certainly has not gone out of daily life. The lecturer pointed out that the ancient Egyptians and such cultures would print the images of gods on their money, religious symbols as rings and jewelry, and having statues or figurines of gods which were kept around the house or in one’s pocket. He spelled out exactly how each of these has a parallel in modern life. This made me wonder if such things truly should occupy so much of our everyday life; is “God” something to be put on money and in pledges and on T-shirts and jewelry, or should God be a more quiet and inwardly spiritual thing, rather than an exterior sign. Or perhaps it is both.
If you are interested in the exhibit, it is located in the JT library; also, here is a link to the online exhibit,
http://libraries.mercer.edu/repository/handle/123456789/95
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