Showing posts with label rocks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rocks. Show all posts

Thursday, May 20, 2021

The Silence of Stone

 
We usually become aware of the above kind of silence  when  visiting cemeteries ׂ(headstones) and deserted places (stone of ruins and abandoned houses).

In summer 2015,  I visited the  leper colony (1903-1957) of Spinalonga (Crete, Greece). The silence of the stone there , was telling  us about the struggle of the  former inhabitants  to survive under terrible, unimaginable, conditions .

Their suffering  got through the stone and reached us, visitors.  Despite the midsummer scorching heat, I felt a shiver along my spine during the whole trip.  

Great sadness fell upon those walking on the islet and learning about  the people  with leprosy gathered  and brought to a place with no way of return.

In spite of it all - sickness, hardships, stigma - there was life going on there (people fell in love , married, had children; built houses, two little churches, an hospital , a cemetery). The place , once nicknamed 'the land of the living dead', is seen nowadays as a monument  to human pain and spirit.

                                                            the gate (tunnel) of no return

                                                   by the window of a  deserted stone house

                                 access to a little dock where supplies were brought in         

(more photos and details in my post of Oct. 2016).

 *

The message conveyed through the silence of stone is that suffering ultimately leads to death and decay, but the spirit stays on.  It is a comforting thought.

There's a dramatic song on YouTube named "The Spirit goes on" whose refrain says:

"If I die  tomorrow I'll be alright

Because I believe

That after we're gone

The spirit carries on"