Today I went to the catacombs with 2 of my roommates. It was quite strange walking down all those spiral stairs and then through all those tiny passages, but then all that gave way to long passageways piled high with bones and people began to take pictures left and right as they made their way through.
I, too, did this. I took pictures of broken femurs and skulls broken by time or tourist. It wasn't until I had been walking for some time that I began to realize that all the bones I was looking at had once been people. Before then they were just objects to me that I captured with my camera when something would move me.
It sounded like the group of American high school students in front of me had been going forward with the same sentiment as well. They were touching the bones in photos before screaming, giggling and moving on to the next bone they wanted to touch. I can't say if they ever made the same realization I did - I wonder if they would have screamed a little louder if they though of the flesh and tendons that used to be attached to that femoral head.
When I had walked through the entire length of the section of the catacombs open to the public and gone up the small spiral staircase, there was a security guard posted to check my bags before I was allowed to exit. Before he said "bon" and allowed me to pass I noticed that beside him on a table were 3 broken skulls, presumably all of which had attempted momento moris from previous visitors. I could only wonder what is the value of a skull when it has no name or face and why disturb the remains just to please some passing desire for a souvenir...
I, too, did this. I took pictures of broken femurs and skulls broken by time or tourist. It wasn't until I had been walking for some time that I began to realize that all the bones I was looking at had once been people. Before then they were just objects to me that I captured with my camera when something would move me.
It sounded like the group of American high school students in front of me had been going forward with the same sentiment as well. They were touching the bones in photos before screaming, giggling and moving on to the next bone they wanted to touch. I can't say if they ever made the same realization I did - I wonder if they would have screamed a little louder if they though of the flesh and tendons that used to be attached to that femoral head.
When I had walked through the entire length of the section of the catacombs open to the public and gone up the small spiral staircase, there was a security guard posted to check my bags before I was allowed to exit. Before he said "bon" and allowed me to pass I noticed that beside him on a table were 3 broken skulls, presumably all of which had attempted momento moris from previous visitors. I could only wonder what is the value of a skull when it has no name or face and why disturb the remains just to please some passing desire for a souvenir...
No comments:
Post a Comment