Some more of Shelly's sonnet:
... Two vast and trunkless legs of stone,Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read ...
I recall visiting Jericho, which archaeologists believe is the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world. There was not much going on there when I visited, but perhaps since they lost the walls, it isn't much to speak of anymore. There was a snowy North wind when I visited Stonehenge, so most of my fellow tourists didn't even get out of the tour bus. The road through central Rome where Caesar paraded his war trophies would make some hiking trails I've been on look well cared for. And all this came to mind as I walked this morning through what was, when I moved into the neighborhood about 21 years ago, the vineyard and orchard of an ambitious older gentleman who still cared for them. The house and yard have been gone for four or five years now and the entire area has been razed awaiting some real estate developer's magic touch. That's the lesson of Ecclesiastes 1.
Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. That's the Lord in Matthew 24:35As I look toward another new year, the 60th in my mortal experience, I find both Ecclesiastes 1 and Matthew 24:35 comforting. This too will pass.
