Pinecones and Peacocks

A theme of this trip has been that there is so much, too much, to see and experience. While one would like to see as much as possible, it is important to devote a bit of time to processing and truly soaking in what’s going on.
That being said, there were so many options of where to go next that I simply could not choose. I also had seen so many breathtaking and incredible things not only that morning, but also in the days before. This necessitated some time of reflection and meditation if my experiences were to be truly meaningful.
So this is what we did! Myself and 4 other students sat outside on the edge of a fountain and processed everything that we had seen and done at that point. We noticed a pine cone and tried to remember what our guide had told us they represented. In Rome, pine cone motifs are abundant.
We also remembered seeing peacocks in the first church in the scavi under the basilica, as well as in some more recent decor.
This sparked a deeper conversation about why human beings choose to emphasize certain aspects of life, and why we pay homage to these symbols. We also discussed different religious and otherwise existential aspects of life, sharing multiple theories and even some personal opinions.
This conversation reminded me of a painting we had seen that day in one of the rooms of the Apostolic Palace. Raphael’s fresco known as The School of Athens features Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Pythagoras, and many other well known philosophers. (As a student of philosophy, this was one of my favorites!) In the fresco, these great thinkers are portrayed as actively teaching one another, learning from one another, and reflecting on their life experiences. Some of our own topics of discussion were similar to the very things that perplexed these men. Through time and space, there are things that bond us together as human beings.
From some of the other posts here, you can see how we have experienced a culture that is different from our own in more ways than one. If we exist in the same time, how much more different could the culture of these ancient philosophers have been from our own American culture, the present Italian culture, or any other present-day culture? This lesson has been reiterated to me through this trip: despite our many differences, through space and time we are all connected through our humanity.