The Need to have them

Ajahn Brahm (from the Buddhist Society of West Australia) in one of his talks wondered why people are often so busy taking pictures instead of staying with the moment taking in the scene before it is gone.

This is the dilemma I faced during a family trip to Athens and Santorini recently. The sights are simply gorgeous and breath taking. You want to capture them before they are gone. In doing that however you view the beauty at that instant only through the tiny screen of the camera. Nevertheless you want to possess it forever; but the photographs will never ever be the same as those scenes before your very eyes.

In the Acropolis museum, a magnifient attempt is made to piece the fragmented original ruins of Parthenon (temple at Acropolis). Like patchwork, the missing pieces are substituted with cast copies. There are several signs that say the missing original pieces are now at the British Museum and the Louvre.


Apparently in the early 19th century Lord Elgin of England removed everything from the Parthenon that was removable. Their reasoning was had they not then someone else would have and in bringing these pieces back to England they were protecting history.
A visitor can not help but feel disgusted with this crazy desire to possess which robs the wholeness and sanctity of the original.