I am a footnote in Greek history. Literally.
My brother Nick has spent a month on paid research in Greece to study the intricacies of the famous Mycenaean Lion’s Gate from the Bronze Age, which happens to be the first noted and recorded sculpture in European history. Significant, to say the least. My boyfriend Brandon and I only assisted Nick in his research on his final day of studies, but the experience of taking part of what I believe to be monumental archeological research was enough to guarantee us to be footnoted as helpers in the articles, lectures, and publications from Nick about his interpretation of The Lion Gate, an interpretation that I am certain will play a role in history. Nick spent five days straight on a ladder 27 feet high on the popular Greek site of Mycenae touching, measuring, photographing, and analyzing one of the most revered sculptures in history thanks to an exhausting list of archeological connections and approvals. He is one of very few people in the world who have ever touched the famous lions on the gate, and, thanks to the special circumstances that I got to experience as well, so am I.
The beauty of what Nick does is found in the deepest of details. He spent days measuring the diameter, depth and preservation of each drill hole, saw splice, and sculptured shape of the the lions from 1250 B.C. After a few hours of typing out the intricacies of the measurements he shouted down to me from 30 feet above, I realized that it is in understanding and measuring the past that we can properly interpret our place in history and our role in the future. Nick is measuring this landmark of history in more exact detail than it has ever been analyzed and recorded before, and while that sounds impressive in and of itself, I was unable to grasp the magnitude of detail and passion required to pour into such research without my morning spent as his archeological assistant. Every centimeter measured and analyzed of The Lion Gate represents hours of precise and patient work, and patient, Nick is.
We all need to take time, to engage patience and find the appropriate tools to measure our past, for it is when we measure our past that we can understand our past, and it is when we understand our past that we can maximize our future. As in Nick’s world where prehistory and the Bronze Age directly affect everything else in the history of Greece, so too in our worlds do our pasts affect and influence the outcome of our futures. The more we can understand what is deep within our own personal history, our own personality, and our own most intricate hopes, the more we can become conquerors and forgers in the dictation of our own futures.