Reflections on Old Stuff and home away from home.

As I sit on my balcony in the early morning sunshine, my laptop on my knee and little Mcgregor nestled beside me on the sofa, the almost quiet city is waking up. Toronto is the complete opposite to the bobbled lanes of old Rome and the noisy hustle and the bustle of the eternal city. Toronto is in all ways a modern city with nary a toehold to the past. Noted historical events range little further back than around 1813 when the town (York town) was sacked and burned by the marauding Americans! (there’s a battle they won!) (ps.One of my Great Greats, Donald MacLean, died defending the town in that war!)

People here don’t bother to talk about the thousands of years of autochthonous populations who flourished in this vast land….funny how one part of the world can be soooo proud of their ancient civilizations (just because they were clever enough to build everlasting monuments in marble and terracotta), while over here….on the eastern WASPy side of North America the masses prefer to forget there were people before Christopher Columbus, Mr. Hudson, Mr. Verrazano and Sam Champlain!

For me the overriding memory of Rome will be the ruins of that great Roman civilization. Of walking on paths so old you can barely get your head around the genius and blood, sweat and death that created them. I experienced an overwhelming sensation of smallness, of being a part of a tiny blip in an unremarkable moment of history, we probably wont be remembered too kindly in 2000 years time!

Another moment many around St Pauls Basilica will wish to forget, is the storm raging over the Pope, the Vatican anddodgy behaviour of some priests. The hand of the unknown jumped inside my camera to create this unexpected image (below), surely an interesting representation of the men of this church in 2010.