By Clyde

The winter “doldrums,” named for the ocean near the equator with calm, shifting winds, is no match for what seems to loom on the horizon. Like the Argonauts, we seem to be dodging clashing rocks coming in from all sides. Send out a dove. The Nordic fjords, the Northwest Passage, the Trans-Siberian railroad or buying provisions in Salisbury to go west with Mr. Boone must have been hard in the winter time. Now, we complain about having to scrape the frost on the windshield. How have we made it this far, Deo Volente, and what do we have left to show how far we have come? Who decides what we preserve or restore? Is it happenstance or fate?

Psalm 48:13 says “Tell the towers there of, mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces; that you may tell it to the generation following.” Not your average house tour.

Funny, except for the pyramids, we have never even heard of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. What does that tell about preservation?

The lighthouse at Phaedra was a lantern to the shipbuilders. No adaptive reuse. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were built by King Nebuchadnezzar to please his wife. The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus was all about art and beauty. Who needs that? The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus built in 353 B.C. was pillaged in 1622. The 100 foot high Colossus at Rhodes did not straddle the entrance to the harbor, but was demolished by an earthquake in 224 B.C. The scrap bronze was hauled away by 900 camels. In 88 B.C., Romans plundered the temple at Delphi and Nero is said to have carried away 500 statues. The fourth story was added later to the Colosseum at Rome. Pope Benedict stopped the spoliation when it was being used as a quarry for marble.

Meanwhile, over at the Parthenon, the metopes, like those on our Rowan Museum were taken to the British Museum. Like most, the statue of Zeus at Olympia is no more.

Neither is Zeus. The pyramid tombs are “so proportioned that the perimeter of the base approximates the circumference of a circle having the altitude for its radius.” They were originally faced with polished granite and the wise ol’ Sphynx was originally painted red.

At the expense of Wm H. Vanderbilt, one of the needles of Cleopatra’s obelisks was moved to Central Park, N.Y. on February 22, 1881. There are no bronze plaques or brochures at the Visitor Center.

If you want a dire prediction, read the rest of the hymn by Arthur Clevland Coxe written in 1840, just before the Civil War.

“We are living, we are dwelling,

In a grand and awful time,

In an age on ages telling

To be living is sublime.”

So if you have those “up the creek with no paddle” thoughts, just look over your shoulder at the path you have traveled. Old timers have the advantage. Reward, respect, reverence them. Give them the time of day. Their prognosis may not be good. Don’t buy any green bananas. Keep your options open. “Take two and butter them while they are hot.” Treat yourself to chocolate and Bordeaux. Spend some of the hard earned $$.

Do a slow dance. Whistle a happy tune. Kids have forgotten how. Back up to a wood stove. Bring in the dog. Put another log on the fire. Hang up a bright sunflower art.

Enough with this agreeable grey paint. Wistfully while-away waking watchful woe-be-gone whims without which white wintery windowsill wisps warning wayfarers would wither.

Look at old photographs. How respectful they seem. They couldn’t smile because of the exposure time. Do something you can’t google. No selfies for today. Winter winds make you gather your subjective thoughts. Write introspective poems, and long for the warmth of illusive spring. A simple, small, found object can jolt you to stop and focus on your very being. “Howl ye, woe worth the day for the day is near; it shall be the time of the heathen” (Ezekiel 20:2).

In the shadows of a weary world, within a weary land, look for an outlet. Many of us have lost sight of what’s real and what is a theme park. F. Edwards, a preservationist in Charleston, S.C. said 20 years ago “You know, someday we may be sorry we didn’t leave one of these buildings alone, just as a reminder of what this place used to be.”

“Looks old” is not a bad thing if you are a historic building. We’ve got that covered.

Make a list of seven wonders of Salisbury while they are still with us.

Clyde is a Salisbury artist.