Thinking today about a museum I went to a few years ago that had a replica Ovoo (Mongolian cairns of stone and stick that mark borders and shrines for the local religious practices) made of plastic and wood in a Gengis Khan exhibit.
Thinking about the absolute carpet of offering: cash, joints, drinks, candies, actual small stones, and even small statues that had gathered on the replica.
Thinking that, even just as an educational tool and icon, removed from its natural environment but still given context, humans honored it. They stopped, maybe they even prayed, and they left an offering. Maybe to their god, maybe to the mentioned Mongolian animist practices, maybe to the elements at large. But an offering nonetheless, on a plastic replica of a stone cairn in a museum far from home.
Thinking about humans and mysticism and spirituality, about elements and magic and gods. Thinking about our innate ability to honor, to be grateful, to think and to thank.
Thinking about humans, and ovoos, and that ineffable thing that animates us…