Coffin in Fez (Photo: Emily O'Dell)
Define and narrow me, you starve yourself of yourself.
Nail me down in a box of cold words, that box is your coffin.
I do not know who I am.
I am in astounded lucid confusion.
— Rumi
While strolling through the medieval medina of Fez over the Eid, my family and I came across a cluttered cranny in a secluded alley where a woodworker was busy carving coffins. Next to every day objects–like ornately decorated low tables and beautiful bassinets–were coffins resting in all stages of creation. Some were painted, some were bare.
As an Egyptologist, when I saw the outline of a niche painted on this yellow coffin, I thought of the coffins from ancient Egypt decorated with a “false door” for the spirit of the deceased to pass between the two worlds. Speaking with the coffinmaker of Fez, I realized that business for him–regardless of the state of the economy–is always booming…
