Humanity at Work

Now and then you see something that stops you completely in your tracks.? And this was one of those times, about 25 years ago while exploring the ancient site of Pompeii in Italy, during one of a few visits that I’ve made there.

My wife and I were walking through the ruins of a bakery not far from the forum.? After the villas, temples, baths, basilica and other public buildings, this was much more low-key:? one of the many humble bakeries where two thousand years ago, people had worked hard in dark, hot and dangerous conditions.?Other tourists had by-passed it and there were only us and a few lizards there, baking in the fierce August heat.

As I was exploring around, on one of the walls I noticed a small alcove, the kind of place where someone might once have placed their belongings.? On the wall of the alcove, there was a painting.? Compared with other paintings in the villas of the wealthy at Pompeii this was much simpler, almost childlike, probably painted by someone who worked at the bakery, and not important enough to be in the guidebooks. It was hidden away and unheard of. ?Some of the plaster on which it was painted had fallen away, probably from frost or weathering and the painting itself was fading where it was most exposed to the sun. It's a common problem in Pompeii where artifacts begin to deteriorate almost as soon as they’re exposed to the elements.??

But there it was, depicting an olive tree with sun-ripened olives.

Suddenly this wasn't a ruin any more. It was part of someone's life.

Two thousand years ago, this was a place of work, a very busy, noisy, hot, physically challenging place.? But someone had made their own conscious effort to humanize it and introduce some calm, beauty and positivity into what was otherwise a very tough working environment.?

We might like to think that in the 21st Century we are somehow unique, with our own problems, needs and perspectives.

But really we’re still the same as the people that worked in this bakery two thousand years ago.? And aren't we all searching for the same thing as they were?