Nerd.

People often ask me what I do, sitting alone in my room. These days it’s more to do with my depression, but not always.

This is the book I’ve been reading, rather started reading. On page 45 is mentioned Lugalbanda, ruler of Erech, the second oldest city in Sumer. He was apparently such an important and influential king that there are two extant epics about him and he was deified by later Sumerians, maybe within a century of his death. And yet, we know nothing about his rule, his achievements, his victories, his building projects…nothing.

So I sat back and wondered about him. He must have been a great ruler to be remembered so by his successors, and yet nothing of his deeds has come down to us. What might he have accomplished? What enemies defeated, what temples constructed….How mighty he must have felt and how he must have thought his name and  fame would live in history. And now he’s just a name in a King’s List and the protagonist of some mythic tales. Over four and a half thousand years separate him from me, and yet I could close my eyes and almost feel the burning Mesopotamian sun blaze down on me as I stood by the damp banks of the Tigris and saw this man ride by in all splendour. I could smell the damp air and listen to his horse snort as he passed by. Looking at him, I could see the proud lines, the haughty gaze, the scars, and the confident smile.

And I thought as I gazed upon him, “No one will know of all you did, my friend.”

So, yes; I’m a nerd.