We had the privilege of visiting Pompeii last month. It was fascinating and sobering. It was destroyed hundreds of years ago in a volcano. Most people weren’t killed by lava, but rather by the ash that covered them. There are casts of their bodies. People covering their noses and mouths as it became impossible to breath. Mothers laying over the top of babies as they struggled to protect those they loved.
But the experience of Pompeii is less about how the people died than about how they lived. The site is a city’s moment in time – frozen for eternity. There are bowls and cups and vases for carrying wine and water. There are murals on the walls of the market, still visible. There is the bath house with the under-floor steam heating system still intact.
The people of Pompei were just living their lives in an ordinary way. They surely didn’t anticipate their day being studied, cataloged, or reflected upon by masses of people over hundreds of years.
Nor do we.
Most of us are just living our lives from day-to-day. We get up, we get ready, we do our things during the day. We come home, we go to bed. We don’t pause to think about what would be left behind. If time stopped suddenly and the remnants of that daily moment were retained, what would last? Are we living in a way that would matter to someone later?
I think the ordinary has an unrecognized beauty. We hug our spouse. We have coffee with a friend. We share a story about our son with a co-worker. We see our daughter’s violin recital. We check in with our mom via email.
Will any of this mean anything someday? Certainly. Because each moment, stitched together, equals a life. A life well-lived touches a few, or it touches many. And the details of our actions and our decisions will likely not be remembered. But people will remember how we made them feel – and the combined effect our life’s moments had on them.
A snapshot in time is only a snap but each moment is a microcosm of a life overall. The experiences we create as individuals are part of a broader community – one in which we play an important part.
For those in Pompeii, a day-in-the life became the very last day. We will each have a very-last-day as well. And I’ve been thinking about how each day can be the best reflection of a life that adds up to leaving something good behind.
