Rome

The Ponte Sisto in Rome is over 500 years old. The city of Rome is far older and the capital of a key civilization in historical Europe. The ideas that built the ancient city (whose ruins still intrigue today) are still relevant after much struggle and change. Great societies involve expressing their collective spirit through culture, building, language and institutions. Like all of life, they rise and fall.

The struggle for ideas, principles and a search for truth that power people's endeavors, is expensive. But therein lies growth. Rest in achievement and power, decline occurs.

The rise of any "Caesar" is a sign that principles that lift the individual and collective spirit are being surrendered to protect "achievement". That's because we become too busy guarding the past to achieve a future. Much like the bridge: past beauty can be admired. But the process that made it should be multiplied, improved and expanded. The artistry of the search, the struggle to express our spirit.

Albert Camus: "The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion." To ignore this need to be free is declination. "The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself."
Friedrich Nietzsche