The best preserved Mummy in the world by Atul Singh

 

This came in my Facebook feed this morning, while I was twiddling my thumbs, literally and metaphorically. I give myself an hour’s writing time each morning. Sometimes I complete a prior piece and sometimes I try to figure out a new one. This morning I had nothing of consequence going on. My poem had lost it’s charm to me, so I had finally abandoned it. Then I saw this. 

“The Face of Seti I.

Seti I's face is one of the best preserved in all of Ancient Egyptian history. He died 3,298 years ago and reigned while on one of Egypt's wealthiest peaks. One of the most famous pharaohs of all time, II. He was Ramses' father. The greatest pharaoh of all time. When he died, Egyptian Mummification was at the pinnacle of absolute perfection.

It is generally considered the best preserved mummy in the world.”

First, the aesthetics of the face caught my attention.  The peaceful composure of it, the big nostrils, the cheekbones and perfect lips. A good looking man he was, with impeccable features. However, the snippet about the art of mummification being at it’s zenith during his tome intrigued me. Those who mummified him, and perhaps thousands others; they never had a way of knowing the real output of their work. How compelling is that, is it not? Taking all the pains, learning and perfecting their craft, incorporating all the lessons, graduating after a lifetime’s work to get to work on Pharaohs and Queens. In the most consequential act of their lives, preparing them for an eternal afterlife. Yet having no way of knowing if they embalmed their kings nose correctly or will he walk around without one for all eternity because you put too little or too much potion. 

How fascinating would that craft be? Imagine a Michelangelo never being able to see the David or the Sistine chapel. Or a musician or a composer being deaf. We do have an example in Beethoven who at the age of 40, was completely deaf, yet this was when he wrote his most famous symphony – Symphony No.9, also known as The Ninth. But he was a aberration. Imagine all musicians at all times not being able to hear what they produce as music. 

Now, inevitably, the eventual reflections come back to our own lives. So the thought of what acts do we do, for which we are blind to the consequences. What thoughts and actions will have outcomes getting revealed 3298 years from now, way beyond the opaque curtain of the time that we live in. Interesting question, isn’t it? 

A butterfly flapping it’s wings on one side of the world, can cause a storm on the other side. We all of have heard that pithy saying. The butterfly clearly is oblivious and blind to the outcome it potentially generates. 

Do our actions and thoughts fall in the same category? Let’s say I am kind to a person on public transport and yield my seat to them today. She walks out feeling a bit better about humanity and tips the restaurant waitress a generously, which helps put that extra punch in her earnings to get her over the rent for that month, which prevents the landlord’s bankruptcy, which prevents the loss of a few jobs at their bank, which allows the newly married to go through with buying a house, which they were waiting on to plan a family which get’s grandma to see the grandkids a week before she passes and on and on and on. Add 3298 years to this and really and truly the butterfly created a storm, did it not?

The only question is, was it a good one that brought rain to the dry crops or a bad one that destroyed them.