Details of the Past: Andrew Sullivan Detail

Andrew Sullivan Detail, originally uploaded by skitbraviking.

I have always wanted to be an architect and have long rued the art's decline in detail. I am not sure that going back to this style would be the right move, but it's hard not to admire.

Time has us admire the past as if it had the answers. The present, in all it's flourishing possibilities and problems, makes most of us recoil, desire some long-lost hope—a messiah or a hero to lead us to the promised land.

I don't know if recreating an era will do anything for us, our morale or our advancement as a culture. But I do know that as I look over this beauty from the past, that it has faded for a reason and that no matter how much we try, we will never construct an edifice with the exact same inspiration and purpose as this one. Likewise, modeling ourselves after Jesus or Achilles will never allow us to be what we are to be here and now, and despite knowing this, I can't help but admire the truth and beauty of their lives.