Egypt

Colossal monuments, time on a different scale

I just returned from two weeks in Egypt with my husband, my oldest friend, and a group of Americans from around the country. We had a terrific guide who could read hieroglyphics. Hieroglyphics are pictographs that represent sounds in ancient Egyptian. They have the feel of poetry when translated and read aloud.

I’m reeling from the magnitude of the experience.

The Egyptian civilization lasted for about 3000 years, meaning Egyptians were building pyramids 5000 years ago. Below is the Great Pyramid. It stands among three pyramids, two of which can be seen under the wing of our airplane.

Pyramids were burial chambers for pharaohs. Construction began as soon as the pharaoh ascended the throne.

Interior decorations of tombs halted when the pharaoh died. Egyptian custom required pharaohs to be mummified within 70 hours of death in order to make it to the afterworld.

Baboons on the interior wall of a tomb in the Valley of the Kings.

Step Pyramid in Saqqara, designed by royal priest/architect Imhotep ca. 2700 BCE.

At a spice merchant in Luxor.

The scale of the necroplises is daunting. More daunting are the temples honoring gods and pharaohs. Below are a few pictures of Karnak Temple from ancient Thebes—today’s Luxor—built over a period of 1500 years starting around 1900 BCE. The place is a gargantuan complex of pylons (walls/gates), temples, courtyards, statues, and obelisks.

Karnak Temple’s enormority cannot be conveyed in a photograph.

Columns within the Karnak Temple complex.

Republic of Cruelty

Building on this scale suggests the grandeur of human imagination. The constructions reach upward toward the gods, and create a vision of a lasting future.

Today we are experiencing the dark side of human imagination. Our so-called leaders focus solely on personal gain. They revel in the harm they inflict.

It is on us to envision the world in which we want to live. We need to support each other and work together. To me, that means putting love out into the world, helping our neighbors in need, vociferously protesting the current regime, calling out injustice, and striving for a country that cares for all its people, that honors our differences, and that provides healthcare and opportunity for all.

Despair is not an option. Neither is conciliation. We should not be shackled by a scarcity model in which one person’s gain is another person’s loss. We should not be confined by the narrow minded, insecure, cruelty of those in charge.

Here are a few possibly helpful items that came across my desk this week.

Resources for federal employees with disabilities, other federal employees, and those affected by federal budget cuts, from Anne Appelbaum’s Substack.

15 Ways You Can Fight for Democracy from the Contrarian Substack.

Please join the mass rally on April 5—Information for DC area participants. Find a protest near you.

Bookland

Right after I got back from Egypt, I had the pleasure of reading from my forthcoming book, DUET FOR ONE at DC’s Inner Loop.

On my way to read at the Inner Loop and below, reading.

If you live in the DMV, please come to Politics & Prose’s Connecticut Avenue store on Monday, March 24 to hear Paul Lisicky read from his beautiful new book, SONG SO WILD AND BLUE. We’ll be in conversation at 7PM.

Thanks all.

Love, Martha

P.S. ICYMI, here’s my Special Edition Newsletter, and the one right before it, “Celebrating Our Differences.”

At Alexandria’s library in Egypt, homage to the legendary library of ancient times.