Pompeii - What are we able to accomplish?

When I visited Pompeii on my trip to Italy a few days before Christmas, I saw how incredible their lifestyle was then. They had so many beautiful mosaics on the floor and paintings on the walls, and wonderful columns throughout the city. The whole style of the city is just very aesthetic. OK, they had slaves who worked on building and maintaining all this. Today we have much better living conditions. But since the Pompeiians were able to build such an incredible city, shouldn’t we be capable of so much more, and have a wonderful life?

When I entered the city of Pompeii for the first time, I couldn't believe how huge it is! The volcano Vesuvius destroyed this wonderful place in the year 79 A.D. However, the volcano’s lava covered the whole city and preserved it. Therefore, we are still able to see exactly how the city looked when all the inhabitants died. Nothing has been added since then. Walking through the ruins, I felt like an inhabitant of about 2,000 years ago.

What do we learn when we look at Pompeii? I believe that there is more than one thing to learn from this ancient site. First, even a bad incident can have beneficial consequences. How could we have known so much about their lifestyle without preservation? Nonetheless, the most important lesson that we can learn from Pompeii is how great our lives can be. Around 2,000 years ago, people lived under more difficult circumstances than we do today, as they didn't have electricity, modern heating and warm water as we do. Still, the Pompeii citizens were able to create a beautiful town. What will we be able to accomplish then?