Yesterday, while stuck in traffic on the way home from visiting my husband's family over Thanksgiving, my husband and I were having a conversation about Pompeii. We had seen an exhibit at the Museum of Science a few days earlier, and had both been affected by it--not just by the tragedy, but by the way the citizens of Pompeii lived before the volcano erupted. Everything was beautiful. My husband had liked the atriums and water running through houses, the way nature
was incorporated into the domestic realm instead of actively being kept
out. Liam and Dawson had loved the way people peed in pots in the street that were later used to clean laundry. I had loved the public baths, and the way people then seemed to have so much of what we have now, but it was more artistically detailed and crafted.
We passed a Chi Chi's.
"I mean look at this," I said. "If a cloud of ash covered us right now and people dug us up centuries later they wouldn't find hand painted frescoes and beautiful mosaics. They would find big box stores, strip malls, and gas stations."
"You pee, Liam," said Dawson, who was sitting in the back
"Now listen," I said, turning around to face him. "That is enough. No more talk about butts or pee or poop." Dawson, especially, has been obsessed with potty talk lately.
"It's rude," said my husband.
"VERY rude," I said sternly.
"It's funny," said Liam.
"Butt crack," said Dawson.
"Hee hee hee," said Liam.
"I mean it," I said. "That's enough. It's obnoxious and makes you seem like little boys with bad manners. Do you want to be little boys with bad manners?"
Which was about the time we pulled up alongside a car with a bumper sticker on the back that said in big red letters:
"I HEART FARTS."
"Oh no," I said to my husband.
"What? What?" said Liam and Dawson.
"Nothing," I said. "Look at those beautiful mountains."
But it was too late. "Look at that car!" said Dawson. "It says I heart FARTS!!"
"Ha ha ha aha hahahahahhaha," said Liam. "That's hilarious!"
("Don't worry," said a friend of mine who studies classics said later. "Even in Pompeii they probably had fart jokes.")
Anyway. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. And if you get a chance to go to the Museum of Science in Boston and see the "Day in Pompeii" exhibit, I highly recommend it. But be warned, once you've seen a pair of beautifully crafted gladiator shin guards, a gorgeous hand blown aqua glass cremation urn, or hand carved combs and make-up containers, it's hard look at a Pottery Barn catalogue the same way again.
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