Fragmentation

Farley Mowat practiced a tradition in which "fiction" and "truth" were not mutually exclusive. Stories told around the kitchen table and cooking fire are stories meant to be remembered and learned from--but perhaps not exact in every fact.

Mark Twain said “Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.” Mowat's maxim was just a little different. "Never let the facts stand in the way of the truth"

In a way, there is a parallel with the constructing of make believe dry stone ruins.

'Try not let the vagueness of this present landscape get in the way of creating something that suggests it might have had a meaningful past.

Joel Knight, another not as well known writer wrote  “There is, I find, something very evocative about ruins - particularly recent ones. 

The computer age leaves no ruins.
The data is either there or it's completely lost.
The fragmentation of files and hard drives is not something we can relate to.
Stone ruins can provide that middle ground where we come to terms with the gradual fragmentation of this fleeting world.

The past is always gone, and yet,

there is value in contemplating the loss.

We need reminders of the past. New reminders will do.

Even if we don't remember what they mean.
Even if we don't know what it is we are remembering.