Monday, March 05, 2007

Fred, The Misplaced Pagan

Fred is pondering over his place in this world... If he belongs, if he ever belonged. He speaks of perhaps belonging in Greek times, when humanity was a small speck in a large world, before--as he says-- "Those horrible mid-eastern religions had not yet raised their grim and censorious heads."

Thoughts like that resonate deeply although the rational side of me scolds me for pining over the impossible.

His timing is impeccable. I have just started playing a game called "Titan Quest" in which you are a Greek hero of one kind or another, questing through the ancient Grecian countryside in a game that has stunning graphics, gorgeous blue skies, and flowing water so clean it hurts.

I must suppose that--at one time or another--we all wish to have lived in some imagined paradise in the past. But then, reality comes a-knocking, reminding me that there were no grocery stores, no medicine, no electricity, no air-conditioning in summer, no smoke-free furnace in winter. No computer games either, for that matter.

But I can understand that--if we had lived in those long gone days--none of those modern gadgets would be known, or missed. We would live out our lives as a farmer, or a fisherman, live in a one-room hut, and spend all our days in the sunshine.

Not so bad, really.

But then again, those endlessly warring city-states in those days could easily mess the whole thing up beyond repair.

Sigh.

No comments: