Humans Don't Monopolize the Past - Miles Yun

One of the most important factors that attract people to Europe are remnants of the past from archaeological monuments to ancient paintings. Witnessing and walking among objects and structures from before our time places us in the context of a time before us, allowing us to transcend the fifth dimension of time. This type of experience is expected in places like the British Museum or the Coliseum, because people look towards only manmade structures as remnants of the past. What I learned in Spain is that you don't have to be in a museum or walk among ruins of an ancient civilization to look into the past. The environment and nature around us hold its own historical experiences. Humans don't monopolize the past. 

The first time I realized this was visiting the beaches of Guardamar in the middle of the nigh. All the buildings and houses along the coast had their lights off, isolating all my attention to the environment. That night, the moon, almost full, shined bright on the water below. The waves within the boundaries of the moon's spotlight glistened like the stars that stare down above. A boundary between the sea and the beach didn't exist as the waves slowly creeped closer and closer to the row of houses. There was no horizon either as the distance portrayed nothing but darkness. The deep, mysterious, dark sea merged with the never-ending sky. The only horizon in view was the faint line of lights of the city in the distance to the east. This scenery was the exact same one that people thousands of years ago witnessed. And the effect of the ideas and experiences inspired by this exact scenery reaches to modern day. 

Growing up, I was a die hard fan of book series of modified ancient mythologies, and although I thought that the polytheistic gods were "cool" and "awesome", I never really understood it. Growing up as a Christian, I didn't see why ancient civilizations would have had the need to attach different higher beings to so many different aspects of life. A decade later, I found the answer. 

The moon, sky, sea, beach, land all made me feel so small in comparison to the mighty forces of nature. Watching the very sea that inspired the creation of Poseidon, the very sky that inspired the creation of Zeus, the very moon that inspired the creation of Selene, I understood that as small, individual human beings in the context of this mammoth world, a good way to conceptualize and understand everything is through these divine figures. It is in this very experience that I was able to completely emerge myself in the same exact planet, continent, and sea where the ideas that shaped my childhood were created thousands of years ago. 

All the people who came before us and their experiences are ultimately derived from the environment and nature around us, not our own creations in museums, paintings, and structures. We don't have to necessarily seek the best museums and paintings out there to witness human history, but rather tap into the environment's recreation of it, because humans don't monopolize the past.