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My kid asked why we dig up old stuff and it threw me
We were watching a show about the new finds at Pompeii and my 8-year-old just goes, "Why do we care about their plates?" I gave my usual spiel about history and culture, but then he said, "But we have our own plates." It hit different because he wasn't being rude, he just didn't get the point. I realized I've been talking about objects when I should be talking about the people who used them. How do you explain the value of a broken pot to a kid?
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jessica9213mo ago
Wait, but doesn't that make it even harder to explain? Like, if you tell an 8-year-old that we're saying "we see you" to a stranger who's been dead for 2000 years, isn't that almost creepier than just finding a plate? I'm genuinely asking because my nephew asked me the exact same thing last week and I froze. How do you sell the idea of caring about a person you'll never meet and who has no connection to your life at all? It's not like family history where you can point to a grandma's china set.
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ross.christopher5mo ago
Man, that's a great question. My nephew asked something similar at a museum once. He was staring at a rusty old key. I told him to imagine the person who lost it. Were they late for work? Did they get locked out? That broken pot wasn't just a plate. It's proof someone was there. They made food. They had a bad day and dropped it. We're just finding their stuff and saying, "We see you.
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harperr825mo ago
Oh man, that's way too deep for me. I'd just be staring at the broken pot thinking about how much it must have sucked to clean up. Like, you're already having a bad day, you drop your dinner, and now there's clay shards and stew all over your dirt floor. Congrats, future people, you found my ancient mess.
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