Uncharted Thoughts.

I was listening to a podcast by The Ancients the other day while at work scrubbing floors and changing beds. The podcast episode was about ancient dogs, specifically about how we came to domesticate dogs, what they were used for and how they were treated (I highly recommend listening in to the podcast). A passage read by the University professor stated something along the lines of; after following humans around for long enough, feeding off their scraps and waist, the wolves would forget how to hunt and after only two or three generations, the wolves would also forget that they were once pack hunters of large monstrous beasts.

This struck a cord in me. A thought, I have never really considered before. Something somewhat inspiring and horrifying simultaneously. While today we sit with the technological advancements that make the world seems so much smaller, so much more accessible and less mysterious. We are the kin of ancient explorers, of those that traversed mountains, seas and storms with little more than the willpower of homo-sapiens. Too often now do we invite the negative aspects of human history into our lives. We look to all that which we have done wrong, rather than look at the great achievements of our race.

We are the offspring of both heros and villains. yet more accurately, we are those in between. From Alexander the Great, Boudica Queen of the Iceni, Genghis Khan the man who conquered the world, the great Cleopatra VII, Adolf Hitler the devil in flesh, Julius Caesar a man who was considered a God to some and of course Heinrich Kramer the sexually frustrated fool. To the masters of arts and science such as William Shakespeare, Marie Curie, Galileo Galilei, Isaac Newton, Leonardo Da Vinci and J.R.R Tolkien. The frontiersmen and woman of greatness of the past, they are our kin as much as the wolf is to the dog.

Yet, how can we all be the offspring of one of these greats? When there are so few that have their names scribed into the history books? Well, we are so more than that, we are the kin of ancient farmers, of sailors and smiths. While the big names pathed the way through the world with violence, war, scientific discoveries and fine art. We the people, were the backbones of their ideas and fortunes. While Alexander the Great pushed through the Persian Empire, he was accompanied by 40,000 brave warriors. We are those men, not born into greatness, neither made for it, but we stood shoulder to shoulder with the giants of history, making their dreams a reality. Those 40,000 men needed weaponry, we supplied it. Clothing and ships were needed to take this venture, we built and wove them. Food and provisions were supplied by farmers. We broke our backs tending to their needs.

Although the names of warriors, smiths, shipbuilders and farmers are lost to time. It is they that have carved history into existence. Could Leonardo Da Vinci have painted The Last Supper without those that made paint? without those that formed canvasses? or the shop clerk that purchased them from merchants that came from distant lands? Could J.R.R Tolkien written the Lord of the Rings without going to war and fighting along side those brave men who’s names are now forgotten? No. They would be men and woman with ideas and nothing more.

We often look back at the empires of ancient history, to which most these legendary tales of hero’s and villains come from and ponder their great achievements or harrowing wickedness. Yet, there is a time before this, a time with a subtle historical footprint, supported less by fact and archaeological evidence and more by legend and guess work. Ancestors so far in the past we often forget we share their story. Men, Woman and Children that grew up in small communities, with little knowledge of space, time, feathered pillows and warmth. We are those men, we have changed little biologically to those that hunted mammoths in the blistering cold, harnessed flames with stone tools, painted art upon the walls of caves, trekked through unforgiving lands only to be torn apart by the short nosed bear while crossing the Bering strait and those that pressed forward into oblivion and unknown worlds.

While we are a lost generation, we share the DNA of those brave ancients. Of those that shaped the world we live in today. So next time you think you are unworthy or that a task is too big, remember that you are the vessel of greatness. One that is the offspring of bravery and distinction. Indeed we stand on the shoulders of giants, yet our feet are morphed onto its skin at birth.