{"id":858,"date":"2013-06-05T01:33:33","date_gmt":"2013-06-05T08:33:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sermonsinstones.blaseckie.ca\/?p=858"},"modified":"2013-06-18T10:09:05","modified_gmt":"2013-06-18T17:09:05","slug":"tempus-fugate-and-sometimes-dances","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sermonsinstones.blaseckie.ca\/?p=858","title":{"rendered":"Tempus fugate and sometimes dances"},"content":{"rendered":"

I hate the expression \u201cBucket List\u201d. It\u2019s too easy. It puts life into compartments, into a 95 minute compact script on how to drown-proof a mid-life crisis. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"St.\u00a0I vaguely remember a picture book about Pompeii in Grade 2. Big words, colourful sketches of Roman chariots running over peasants and a giant black cloud with lightning bolts over a mountain. People running. This being a picture book for 7 year olds, I seem to recall a man scooping up a child and carrying her off, presumably to safety. That\u2019s my interpretation, anyway.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0Vague memories aside, that book germinated into a life long fascination with the story of Pompeii. I\u2019m not claiming I was a precocious little tyke to discern the great story buried in the shadow of Vesuvius. Like dinosaurs and things the cat ate, Pompeii is on the top 10 list of things almost any 7 year old can talk about for hours without taking a breath.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\"pompeiiThe one story about Pompeii I do clearly remember reading is \u201cThe Dog of Pompeii<\/span><\/a>\u201d.\u00a0You\u2019ve read it too, I\u2019m sure, so I won\u2019t break it down for you here. If you haven\u2019t read it or want to wander down memory lane, the link is here<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0It\u2019s the trampoline for just about every T.V. show\u2019s attempting to leap frog over sharks:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Opening scene: a football player gets tackled hard and knocked out.\u00a0 Wavy lines as he returns to what he thinks is consciousness, what the\u2026everyone is wearing togas! Meets girl who is daughter of somebody important. Impresses these ancient hicks by using a lighter\u2026etc. etc. Manages to convince family to flee in the nick of time\u2026 stays behind for some contrived reason (but not before lingering kiss and solemn promise \u201cI\u2019ll find you\u201d)\u2026as the smoke thickens he sits down beside a boy leaning against a building\u2026gets smacked on the head again and comes to with his team mates \"Tryingstanding over him saying his name over and over again.\u00a0 The next week there\u2019s a new girl in\u00a0 school and she looks like\u2026of course. In history class they share a book, the pages fall open to a picture of the body casts from Pompeii\u2014specifically the crouching boy\u2026cut to: \u201cThe END\u2026or is it<\/i>\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0I should know, I was a sucker for anything that mentioned Pompeii regardless of plausibility or quality.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0As we rattled along on the train from Naples to the modern village of Pompeii Scavi there was a young couple\u00a0 sitting across from us who took the time to let us know of other ruins at the base of Vesuvius.\u00a0 \u201cWhy do these tourists insist on going there when Herculaneum is so \"Railmuch, you know, superior,\u201d the lithe, skinny, freshly pressed khaki wearing woman loudly whispered to her bearded, older companion also dressed in Lost Ark mufti. He laughed and then began to look for loose change in her shirt pockets.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0It didn\u2019t matter. I knew about Herculaneum too but this was a chance to put my feet on a place I\u2019d heard about since I could reach the switch on written words.\u00a0 The boy leaning against a wall was in my heart long before my first love left tracks there. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0It\u2019s not a matter of better somewhere else. This was a chance to coax that innocent wonder out of the shadows, take her hand and walk with her over the cobblestones.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0There is no bucket large enough for that feeling.\u00a0\"Ancient<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I hate the expression \u201cBucket List\u201d. It\u2019s too easy. It puts life into compartments, into a 95 minute compact script on how to drown-proof a mid-life crisis. \u00a0 \u00a0I vaguely remember a picture book about Pompeii in Grade 2. Big words, colourful sketches of Roman chariots running over peasants and a giant black cloud with…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11],"tags":[138,139,142,140,24,141],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sermonsinstones.blaseckie.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sermonsinstones.blaseckie.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sermonsinstones.blaseckie.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sermonsinstones.blaseckie.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sermonsinstones.blaseckie.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=858"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"http:\/\/sermonsinstones.blaseckie.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":911,"href":"http:\/\/sermonsinstones.blaseckie.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858\/revisions\/911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sermonsinstones.blaseckie.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sermonsinstones.blaseckie.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sermonsinstones.blaseckie.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}