Decline and Fall and

On Rome, history, and what outlives the end of the world.

Driving your minivan past the Pyramid of Cestius which was ERECTED IN A TIMELY MANNER BY THE WAY. Photo by Moritz Kindler on Unsplash

I walked to the Vatican Museum, the night I landed in Rome. I don’t know why it was my first stop. Given who I am — gay, trans, ex-Catholic, never not mad at the Pope, etc. — I felt a little like Captain Ahab making a visit to the Museum of Whales.