It's a magical thing. A superpower, if you think about it.

No mortal can raise the dead. No one can bring back someone who has left this world.

Except, of course, through art.

In fact, when the filmmaker Ken Burns was on the Daily Stoic podcast recently (a must-listen episode!), he shared that someone once pointed out just how mind-blowing his job really is.

If you've ever watched one of his documentaries, this makes perfect sense. Through the photos that he slowly pans across, through the diaries he has voice-actors read, through the historians he interviews, Burns brings the Civil War back into the present moment. He puts us in the ring with Jack Johnson, puts us with Da Vinci in Florence. He wakes them from the dead.

As it happens, Zeno, the founder of Stoicism, received a similar prophecy as a young man. The secret to wisdom, the Oracle told him, was to have conversations with the dead. It wasn't until years later, as he listened to a bookseller read a dialog of the long-dead Socrates, that he realized that this is what books allow us to do. Indeed, this is what philosophy is-a conversation with Marcus Aurelius, a walk with Seneca, a chance to examine Cato in the flesh.

Every time we open a book, watch a documentary, or listen to the words of someone long gone, we're waking the dead. We're bringing them back into the present, giving them voice, allowing their experiences and wisdom to shape our lives. And in doing so, we become part of something eternal-a chain of memory and meaning that stretches across time. Through this superpower, we ensure that the dead are never truly gone, and that their lessons continue on.

To read the complete article, see:
You Can Wake The Dead(https://dailystoic.com/you-can-wake-the-dead/)