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Dec 14, 2023

"We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men; and among those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects." --Herman Melville

The Living Sculpture Made by 90 Generations

While walking outside your home, or on a familiar street in your neighborhood, have you ever wondered who -- what kinds of people and life journeys -- walked those very same steps before you? The land has a way of connecting us across time, and a 3,000-year-old natural sculpture in Oxfordshire, England is a living embodiment of such interconnection. The Uffington White Horse is a football-field sized chalk-cut art horse carved into the hillside near Uffington Castle. Every few years, since the Bronze or Iron Ages of 1740-210 BC, an invisible stream of hands and hearts have gathered without fail to maintain this ancient work of art. Standing as an aged offering on the side of the hill, it has lived through countless rulers and wars, technological innovations, and ninety generations (and counting). It was even camouflaged for protection during World War II. In an era of machine-generated art, such living expressions shine a window into the immeasurable value of coming together for the simple joy of making something beautiful.