The Burghers of Brooklyn

Suzanne was telling me about a sculpture called The Burghers of Calais, which is at the Rodin museum. She told me that King Edward forced a victory in Calais by refusing to let food in and nearly starving the people to death. After Calais' surrender, he said that he would spare the people of the city if it's greatest leaders and philosophers would give themselves up for execution. The statue depicts the six great men walking out of Calais and to their deaths.

Suzanne was really moved by this story, it choked her up just to tell it. She appreciated the grandness of the sacrifice, and felt a sadness that there didn't seem to be any opportunity for this kind of nobility now.

I don't know.
I guess I think the world is full of opportunities for noble sacrifice.
Just not the type anyone would bother to sculpt.

But,
I googled The Burghers of Calais so I could see what the statue looked like, and I got an image of those outsized greif stricken human figures that used to haunt the foyer of the Brooklyn Museum. Every morning when I rode my bike past the museum I would look in and shudder.

I wonder if I had heard the story before I saw the statues if I would have felt like Suzanne does about it.