“Got guts?”

GotGutsUnless you know your Egyptology, these are just four statues in a box. These are actually canopic jars and they always come in fours. Why? Because they contain the entrails of a deceased Egyptian. The mumification process took 70 days and the first job was to remove the guts. To preserve these organs for the next life, they were placed in canopic jars.  The jar with the head of the jackal held the stomach. The jar with the falcon head contained the intestines while the liver went into the jar with the human head. The baboon headed jar contained the lungs. What does this have to do with 2017?  Good question! The answer is as old as mankind. We all want to be reborn in a better place. Whether we will be is unanswered. But if all that is left when we leave this place are remnants of our guts, we haven’t really made the world a better place. As you look at these canopic jars, you might wonder if their previous occupant made Egypt a better place for Egyptians. If you don’t know, the answer is no. Your job, whether you leave you guts in a jar or a coffin, is to make sure you do at least one good deed in your life that outlives your mortal remains.

Steve Levi is an Alaskan writer who specializes in the Alaska Gold Rush (nonfiction) and the ‘impossible crime,’ (fiction.)  An ‘impossible crime’ is one where the detective must figure out HOW the crime was committed before going after the perpetrators – like a Greyhound bus with bank robbers and hostages disappearing off the Golden Gate Bridge –THE MATTER OF THE VANISHING GREYHOUND. Steve’s books can be found at www.authormasterminds.com/steve-levi

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