At the enter of Vienna there is an attraction that I seldom saw people attracted to. The name is “Stock im Eisen” – roughly translated a staff made of iron – Nagelbaum.
See the protective cover round it just above the front of the police car. It is a spruce tree dating from 1400 that has had hundreds of nails hammered in to it.
There are a number of theories behind the nails. Some people say it was a good luck gift (like coins in a well). At other times they were considered Satanic.
A bit like Stonehenge. Was it a druid temple, was it a roadsign, was it somebody with a really wicked sense of humour, or was it an alien landing site?
There are all these treasure hoards that have been found, and I was interested in hearing a curator explain the ideas behind them, followed by a confession that there were loads of reasons they could have been left.
It struck me that sometimes I have trouble working out why I do things, never mind people hundreds or thousands of years ago. What will people think when they read our social media in 100 or 200 years time? Maybe it isn’t enough just to ignore or criticise fake news. Maybe we need to make sure we leave behind enough true news to let people in the future know who we are.
Not long ago people used to write diaries. Why not pick a day of the week, or of the month and just write down what your day was like – what you ate – what you did – what was the biggest news of your day.
Off to wat some of my home made soup now…