Rome. The Eternal City. It’s apparent why it’s called that, when walking amongst the ruins of the Roman Forum, the great Colosseum, the immortal Pantheon. You can see the vestiges of each era the city has witnessed since the Empire: Roman columns, churches and frescoes from the Middle Ages, great art from the Renaissance, architecture of the Baroque and beyond.

Humans are capable of great things when we have the will. It makes me think of the countless other monuments scattered across the globe. Chichen Itza and the ruins of Machu Picchu, Stonehenge and Versailles and the Alhambra, the great pyramids of Egypt, Raqmu and the Persian ruins spread across the Middle East, the Taj Mahal and the Potala Palace and the Mogao Caves and Angkor Wat and Rokuon-ji. Many if not most of those landmarks were built with the bodies and blood of slaves and unjust systems and rulers… but can one deny their magnificence?

We have done great deeds as well, ones accomplished not through devious means. We’ve reached out in space around us, visiting the moon. We ended apartheid without true war. For most of the planet, freedom reigns. We have and are saving species from extinction. We have set aside land for the other organisms to thrive. Homicide and hunger around the world are less than ever in human history. We have eradicated diseases, and are working on eradicating more. Have we also done hideous things to each other? Yes. But great and true we have done too.

And we are capable of so much more. The Eternal City is living proof that we can do great things. It’s also proof we have done bad as well as good. If we see, we can believe, and if we believe, we can unite, and accomplish. Not for city or region or country or empire, East or West, North or South. But for this one singular planet we share together.