| Holiday Inn |
Like thousands of other people last week, I spent several hours hanging around airport terminals in several cities waiting for a flight--actually several flights--to be cancelled because of inclement weather. This time of year, winter in the northern hemisphere, in the mid-latitudes during the winter holidays, if you travel you simply must expect this kind of thing; endless waiting, delayed flight after delayed flight, cancellation after cancellation. And an inevitable process winnows down the waiting crowd to a handful of strangers, from disparate places, headed the same direction for disparate reasons. Those with local addresses go home; those with irate natures wander away to argue with their lawyers; those with southern connections eventually make them. Pretty soon, there are six to twelve travelers who become familiar just because you see them again and again, at the gate, at the only open cafe, at the ticket counter, at the baggage claim, at the hotel selected by the airline when everything shuts down for the night, at the gate again in the morning. You have something in common, although you come from different areas, from different backgrounds, with different lives and beings. But still you band together and tell stories of your lives, staving off the cold, staving off the fear of flying in bad weather, staving off the sorrow and anxiety of not being with your loved ones.
So what does this have to do with archaeology? There's something eternal about this situation. Despite all of the news stories in the press about how the technology has isolated us; despite all of the violence of the modern world; despite the polarization of political viewpoints so often cited today; we still bind together in the cave, around a fire, telling stories. It is our essential humanity expressed in the only way we know how.
Happy holidays.
See ya
next week!
