Saturday, June 06, 2009

Time

When does time begin?
Does it begin with a clock?
With a calendar?
~ 3372 BC is the first date in the Mayan calendar.
~ 3760 BC is the earliest date in the Jewish calendar
~ 4236 BC is the first date in the Egyptian calendar.
Does time have many beginnings? Can there be more than one start?
Did time start 7000 years ago with a walled Jericho and Mesopotamian cities?
Did it start more than 10,000 years ago with the marvelous cave art of Spain and France?
How does time begin? With civilization? With art? With a calendar?
With your birthday? Did men do it?

"It's been like that from the beginning of time." Is there more than one time, more than one beginning? I guess we have to decide what that "it" refers to.

When 'they' say the beginning of time could they mean the time that homo sapiens began to move and groove 30,000 or 40,000 years ago. Could they mean 300,000 years ago when giants roamed? Just what the heck are they talking about.

Should we be clear about when time begins before we ask where time exists?

Chivalry Continued from: "A Good Knight"

You have some memory of what a knight was. He was a mounted warrior. The knight was central to chivalry. Chivalry was a glorious practice, but it was also the way the ruling class controlled the mounted warrior during the time of his greatest power. Knighthood was also a way of entering the ruling class or a way for an impoverished nobleman to regain some wealth. Within chivalry can still be found some worthy ideas about how to treat a fighting man, mounted or not.

"Chivalry" is related to cavalry, caballus, chiv, cavalier. Etymologically chivalry is the practice of horsemanship. It comes to English from the Old French 'chivalerie' and medieval Latin 'caballarius.'

Chivalry was practiced in Europe from about AD 800 to about AD 1600. The high days of chivalry were from about AD 1100 to about perhaps 1400. The word 'chivalry' may not have been used until about AD 1300. Modern chivalry began about AD 800 but many of the practice of the principles may go back 10s of thousands of years. Just to take a baby step back, consider King Arthur and Camelot. The knights who sat at The Round Table were certainly Chivalrous. The time of Arthur dates from around AD 450. Also chivalry, by other names, was practice in the east for centuries.

Chivalry, the principal practices of a cavalier or knight, included in more or less this order of importance:
~ horsemanship
~ military skill
~ loyalty
~ courage, valor
Other attributes of a chivalrous man were thought to include in more or less the following order:
~ honor
~ generosity
~ courtesy
~ piety
~ respect for women
~ knowledge of courtly love, dance, and poetry
~ chastity

Although knightly chivalry was a way to have a powerful warrior give obedient loyalty to his god, his sovereign, and to his lady, who may well have been his lords lady. A man today, consciously or unconsciously understands that he is to risk his life for women and children, and perhaps for god and country. His life is expendable for cause.
Still the other principles of chivalry mentioned above have long been honored and a man who is courteous, generous, courageous, loyal, and practices a courtly art or two is considered a pretty good man.



Monday, June 01, 2009

Around Camp Thunderbird

The shed is raised and the sand raked. The lumber it sheltered and the wood of which it was constructed has mostly been given away and hauled away.

The present generation of round tailed ground squirrels seems to be made up of individuals smaller than those of preceding generations.

Slender alligator lizards are eating voraciously.

Grand looking male desert iguanas are protecting territories from one another.

Sunday, May 31, 2009

Sweet Recipe

Was just listening to a couple of sweet feminine voices discussing recipes on my FM station. One was saying to the other, "Was it really good?" and the other was answering, "It was four letter word good."
I was thinking that it did sound good. Than I thought of what that sweet voice was saying and laughed aloud. I could just imagine her first taste of that recipe and her articulation of that four letter word! Then I thought again and laughed aloud again.

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