Where Your Treasure Is, There Will Your Heart Be Also

Pierre Fontenot Tuesday, October 11, 2022 Comments Off on Where Your Treasure Is, There Will Your Heart Be Also
Where Your Treasure Is, There Will Your Heart Be Also

 On August 24th, in the year 79 AD, after centuries of being a mountain, Mount Vesuvius became a killer. Maybe the mountain gave warning, some, a little, the animals acting strangely, maybe there was a low rumble, or a scent in the air… 

… but when the volcano erupted it was as instant as a tornado, as thoroughly devastating as a World War II bombing. 

Everybody knows about Pompeii, but it wasn’t the only city destroyed. Just a little over 4 miles from Vesuvius, is the city of Herculaneum. Archeologists found many dead bodies there, but only one rated a nickname, “The Ring Lady of Herculaneum.”

They estimate she was 45 years old. What stands apart about her, from the other skeletons, is her jewelry. Was she rich, was she fashionable, was this how you’d find her, any ole day of the week? 

Ring Lady of Herculaneum – age 45 – died at waterfront of her town trying to escape the eruption of Mount Vesuvius

But knowing how humanity is, it’s fair for us to wonder, that ole thing about “If the house was on fire, what would you grab?” when Vesuvius rumbled, did this woman stop to gather – or worse -return, and lose time, and distance, to retrieve her jewelry? 

Archeologists found her, nearly 2000 years later, buried beneath centuries of sediment, right near the waterfront, nowhere to go, there she lies, be-baubled with her jewelry, the very embodiment of the truth – You Can’t Take It With You. 

Youth Is For Chasing 

We’re born, we learn to crawl, walk, run, and then, we start chasing. 

We’re in a hurry to be a Somebody. We all want to be a Somebody. Problem is, the only somebody we’re meant to be, is the one ‘n only Us. 

That “true us” is not something to be chased, because it’s not elsewhere, it’s within us. 

Meanwhile, off we go, chasing, because everybody is chasing… 

The longer we go, without truly knowing who we are, the more we depend on our accumulations of possessions, trophies, and symbols, to define us. 

“I am, what I do, I am where I’ve been.” 

“I am, this money, that’s more than your money.” 

“I am this house, that’s bigger than your house.” 

The Ring Lady, was she the jewelry babe of Herculaneum? Would she feel naked without her bling? Did she not know that her life, pulse and breath, were her true valuables? 

When the archeologists found her, they focused on her jewelry. How long, I wonder, did it take for them to see the important things, that inside that skull, was once a brain, within those bones, was once a heart, and spirit. This was a life, a gift, from the Creator, and then it ended, and we don’t know anything about her, except for what her jewelry tells us… 

Aging Is About Mattering 

On Shell Beach Drive you’ll find some of the old money homes. When I was younger, my parents drove us past these homes. We drove slow, if someone spoke, they whispered, like you’d do at a cemetery. Homes, homes, but never any people. 

Ran across this historical passage, a woman in the 1930s, her first impression of a famous Shell Beach home: 

“The K… home was the most pretentious house in Lake Charles… It stands far back, on a whole block of ground… Every tree and shrub imaginable… as well as every flower you can think of… It simply was beautiful to behold. In a fish pond as large as a room we saw hundreds of goldfish capering… 

“The lower floor… furnished beautifully, masterpieces of paintings and sculpture were everywhere… 

“A great table… to accommodate about 50 people. 

“The stairway leading to the second floor, I don’t know how many bedrooms were there… 

“The third story was made into a big ballroom, with seats along the walls, and a stage at the end for musicians and theatricals.” 

And now comes the part that hurt my heart – “And all this was occupied now by two people… 

“Mr K… showed and explained all his treasures to us… he was so proud of them.” 

I know it’s not my place to judge, but it all sounds so hollow… and worse, common. Man has chased money as long as there’s been man or money. There’s nothing original here. 

You get old, you have a lot, but the more you have, the less it means, at the very time of life when meaning matters most… 

God Makes It Matter 

I’ve done my chasing too. That’s how I found that chasing wasn’t for me. I lost a lot of time learning that lesson. 

As for me and my soul, with what is left of my life, I’ve got it all simplified to four words: God makes it matter. 

 

Being given a life was a great gift, 

I do not want to insult the Giver 

By not being the Myself 

That I was meant to be. 

 

I do not want to be defined by 

Purchases 

Possessions, 

Accumulations 

Passing situations… 

At my best, 

 

Just want to be what I am, 

When I am aligned 

With Him, 

His perfection bettering 

My better-ification. 

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This concludes this edition of Uncle P’s Bedtime Stories. Amen it, if it rings your bell. Everybody gets there, when they get there. Copies of Uncle P’s three books can be found at Expressions, 3100 Ryan Street in Lake Charles, and at Flock o’ Five 217 E Thomas, in Sulphur. Need books mailed, or just want to give Uncle P a piece of your mind, email him at eightyoneantiques@gmail.com. 

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