We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
Technically, we are in an Ice Age now - but a dwindling one. We still have polar ice caps which earth did not always have.
I've had fun with this topic since realizing that the Dordogne cave artists were living on tundra 15-20,000 years ago as reindeer-hunting, brown-skinned (and often blue-eyed) nomads.
The retreat of the most recent ice incursion sure was dramatic, with lots of floods.
Those cave bull images were Aurochs, the wild ancestors of modern cattle. The last Auroch died in modern times.
Our guide at the Lascaux cave (Lascaux 4) taught us that the early men in southern Europe (35-25,000 yrs ago) were not "cave men". At the time, southern Europe including southern France was tundra and grasslands while northern Europe was covered with the ice-age icecap. Those homo sapiens were dark-skinned, nomadic, stone-age hunters who mostly followed the reindeer herds for easy food, skins. My ancestors. Like me, liked meat.
I'm sure they used the limestone cliffs for temporary shelter but they did not live in the caves they decorated - art for unclear reasons.
I first learned about cave art in my art history course in secondary school. That was a life-changing course. I still have at least 3 unanswered questions: How did they practice their art before committing to a wall? Was artistry a specialty? And why very few images of humans?
Another wonder: Weren't these people cannibals? I thought they were.
Here is the lighthouse-keeper's house today (the Coast Guard moved the light itself to California):
This little brick structure in the back contained the kerosene, delivered by boat as needed, to keep Mayo Light burning to mark Wellfleet Harbor:
Just past Mayo Beach, through the 1920s, was the grand Chequessett Inn, built on pilings (the stumps of which still poke through the mud) and finally destroyed by an attack of sea ice in the 1930s. Rumor is that rum-runner boats would stop by at night, contributing to the Inn's popularity during Prohibition.
It was built by Mr. Lorenzo Dow Baker, the pioneer of the banana trade from the Caribbean and Central America. On a whim, he loaded his schooner's empty hold with tropical fruit for the return trip to Boston, and made millions. Mainly bananas, hitherto unknown in Boston. Ended up owning plantations all over Central America, and a big hotel in Jamaica. His employees were Jamaicans: They worked Wellfleet in the summer and the Jamaica hotel in the winter.
Baker's business became the Boston Fruit Company, the foundation of the United Fruit Company. A clever Yankee.
Sorry, been extremely busy and traveling this past week. Many visits to my doctors and updates on starting my chemo and radiation tonight and tomorrow. Hoping for some extensions from benefits. The reason I am adding this was an hour with my Pastor. I'll write more about that meeting. However, we spoke about 1 Samuel 8, politics (and my specific reason for leaving masses due to political statements often misguided due to not speaking about 1 Samuel 8, and he admitted he was behind on it) and the fact I've written versions of this 3 times. Once in college for a class that earned me zero grades. Once in grad school which led to a shift in a former leftist set of professors who often misstated Biblical versions of political views. And the third was in 2011 here on Maggie's. Enjoy and feel free to comment. It will be my 5th writing (since I sent this and some updates) to all my friends recently).
The first political systems, from an institutional standpoint, were monarchies. Monarchs either considered themselves gods, chosen by 'the gods', or "Chosen by God". In almost every sense, the political system was tied somehow to the spiritual beliefs of the nation.
During a college course on Democracy, my professor spent the better part of an hour and a half discussing the implications of this concept. He pointed out that God Himself chose Israel's first king, and approved of their choosing a king. I immediately raised my hand and asked "But God didn't want Israel to have a king, did He? He considered Himself their king and allowed them to have Judges which acted as their spiritual and moral guides on earth."
I remember looking at it in the British Museum decades ago, but forgot what I learned. The trip to Egypt renewed my curiosity.
