Today, I was challenged to re-conceptualize my understanding and knowledge of the world and its constructions. For much of my life I have had a basic understanding of the various ways that ancient civilizations have come to be and to pass. Particularly the rise and fall of the Ancient Egyptian Civilization. I have always held these views, taught to me through such things as my public school education as well as movies like "The Mummy" and the cartoon "Moses" and like a lot of people believed this time period to be extremely removed from any modern reality or truth. As my history books taught me, the people looked a certain way and behaved in ways that were far different than our more modern, our more "civilized" society.
Was I WRONG...in fact while wandering through the vast corridors of the Egyptian Museum today I couldn't help be reflect on all of the things in life that I have been taught that seem to be misleading. Today, I was reminded of the ever lasting human condition that plagues all people every where, in any given time period. While yes I knew that these Pharoh's shared in many of our fine tastes of luxury and high society, too, they had a thriving culture that seems eerily familiar to our "modern" world. To have associations and feasts, parties, friends, etc, etc...all things that still matter today.
What struck me the MOST however, was also recognizing the inconsistencies between what existed today in that museum and the textbooks of my childhood, and that was the obvious negation of various forms of diversity and entire group's intellectual and cultural capacity that seems somehow to be so easily dismissed in contemporary literature. I was fortunate enough to be introduced to the thoughts and theories of Carol Gibbs today who acknowledges the strange absence of black people from our historical conceptions of all places Egypt, and more so, their contributions and thriving societies that they had built for themselves in the "ancient" world. Not only did it have to deal with race, but the interconnectivity that was obviously displayed throughout the museum to the rest of the world. I never knew the intimate connections that were shared between the roman empire and the Egyptian civilization at the time. To the point where I saw people of roman dissent buried in coffins that were made for Pharaoh's. There seemed to be a shared world, one with riches from every corner of the globe.
The capacity of this great culture astounded me and forced me to acknowledge the obvious subjugation over time of particular peoples and their way of life. How over time, we have failed to recognize whole heartedly the great achievements of this empire. I realized that what cultures tend to do as a form of power and dominance is to erase history itself. To alter it in such a way that it seems so foreign and dissimilar to anything that we as a people could ever have conceptualized. As the Romans began to dominate the world, the Egyptians slowly tapered off and with their Roman power, these Cesar's, these popes, these politicians altered the truth of history to fit their contemporary belief systems. To uphold their values, while at the same time completely erasing another's. I was reminded of the early mid-evil era when the church deliberately turned pagan Gods into Christian deities in order to slowly coalesce their fellow country men to go along with their plots to dominate and over power the world. Indulgences anyone?
Well today I learned that the all to arbitrary truth is here in Cairo as well. And I am so thankful to have had my eyes opened even wider to the shameful practices of the world where we adjust the reality of the world to meet our needs and formulate speculation, assumption and stereotypes of a place we've never been, a people we've never met that separate them entirely from who we are. This can be found even today and is something that must be considered in our path forward as GLOBAL citizens.
Tonight was an even greater reminder of that as we headed out to the local Shish bar to watch a futbol match between two of Cairo's top teams for the quarter final. We were there with some new local friends and through the power of discussion, the "world's game", and some belly aching laughs I affirmed once more within my heart the greater capacities of human beings to love, to care and to connect on levels that stem far beyond the differences that divide us from time to time.
And of course, as we were driven home to our hostel, we connected even more through our shared love of music...another language of the world.
Today I was reminded of what has been done to billions of people around the world in all different ways that negate their holistic experience on this earth.
Tonight, I was reminded of just how important and beautiful it is to discover, value, understand and appreciate the greater world around us and the people in it. To never take it for granted, and to always seek out the true origins of who a person is, and who a people are.
~ namaste ~
