40. Communicating With The Future

40.

Communicate with the Future?

Polly tells me that the people she sees living here in the high Andes are similar to those she saw in East Nepal, near Tibet. Both groups of mountain dwellers have thick, straight black hair and glowing bronze complexions. The women wear their hair braided and wear mostly woolen clothes of somber colors. She says both peoples exude a wholesome aura and that neither locality has cars, advertisements or glass in the windows of their houses.

After four years of exploration, Polly lists her four “best places”: Kabul, Afghanistan, Ben Nevis mountain in Scotland, the island of Bali and Katmandu, Nepal. Ben Nevis is the best, she says. If we ever meet again it will be there.

Partly hidden behind an old statue in the little town church is a portrait print labeled in Latin: “A true likeness of Jesus Christ from the Holy Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican City, Rome”. The countenance in this picture resembles the face on the famous “Shroud of Turin”—the same long nose, forked beard, receding hairline and solemn expression, for example. It is so difficult to locate reliable artifacts from the past about this or any other person—and what is available is almost impossible to interpret. This face probably is the nearest we will ever come to a portrait of the “historic” Jesus, if indeed He ever existed.

Indeed, I wonder if any of the most famous people living today will leave the slightest trace for people living in 2000 years to admire, that is if any people at all are left to admire anything.

If I should return in 2000 years, what relic might I find of this previous me? Would anything of my present understanding be worth communicating to that future person? Or if I had lived in some past life on this planet, as some believe, what would I do to communicate with my present life? Build pyramids in Mexico? Sculpt big stone heads in Columbia?

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