All is Vanity
Tibetan monks make sculptures out of butter; Navajo medicine men make sand paintings which blow away. Do we think, "what a waste of time" or "what a waste that such a beautiful thing will be destroyed"? Do we think, "all that work for nothing"?
Are the things we create any different in the long scheme of eternity? Probably not. My children might keep my rosemaling. But it is highly unlikely that it my rosemaling will survive the changes of fashion to come in the next 100 years. And if fashion changes don’t devalue it, entropy certainly will! Is a piece of rosemaling that survives a hundred years any more permanent than a sand painting or a butter sculpture that lasts a day? In light of the vast ages of eternity, I say no.
Are the things we create any different in the long scheme of eternity? Probably not. My children might keep my rosemaling. But it is highly unlikely that it my rosemaling will survive the changes of fashion to come in the next 100 years. And if fashion changes don’t devalue it, entropy certainly will! Is a piece of rosemaling that survives a hundred years any more permanent than a sand painting or a butter sculpture that lasts a day? In light of the vast ages of eternity, I say no.
