Mind

A meditation:
Death may keep me from changing my mind.
Learning means changing my mind.
Changing my mind means learning.
My learning is changing my mind.
My mind is changing my learning.
Learning changes mind.
Mind changes learning.
As I live, so I learn.
Live and learn!
Learn and live?
I learn as I live.
I live as I learn.
There are way to live.
There are ways to learn.
This isn't the whole story.
Sit with it a bit.

Words From A Political Despondant

~ I feel I have no effective governmental representation.
~ I haven't seen a representative up close in years.
~ I don't have a usable source of trustworthy information about the activity of government.
~ At one time I felt I could find a way to appropriately trust being informed by my union, but see no brotherhood there now.
~ I have never seen the opportunity to help put together a party platform.
~ I see no creative dialogue on practical social policy.
~ I have not been allowed to follow ballots from where they are marked to where they become a real part of publicly official tally.
~ As I am not in on the nominating process or the bill writing process the ballots lose some of their interest.
~ I am not on a friendly basis with any organization organized to keep tabs on people in power.
~ I often look at a ballot sheet as a menu of items to which I am allergic.
~ I am no longer motivated to 'join' a party because party seems stand for very little today.
~ Parties seem to have no ongoing platforms.
~ Candidates have platforms, but most often prove to be very shaky.
~ I don't know where creative political and social dialogue take place.
~ and on and on.

We Recover

The pain in my right leg and hip has diminished. Numbness and buzzing fuzzy feelings have increased. Still have a lot of pain and some loss of function.

I was to have a spinal MRI this afternoon so as to give Dr Levy something to look at. I have just received a call from a representative of the local MRI facility and was told that the machine was down and that I would be called when it is working.

Made an appointment some time ago for a follow up with Dr. Zadeh about the results of my colonoscopy and biopsy of last month. He is unable to see me until next month. I agreed to the colostomy as a step in dealing with my 22 months of diarrhea. Zadeh's nurse told me that I had no polyps and that a biopsy was taken to see if any reasons for my diarrhea might be suggested.

In the mean-time Dr. Levy suggested that I take another treatment of flagyl. I was going to reject the treatment because I had recently had fecal cultures done which came up negative. I remembered my lack of faith in US labs ability to deal with parasites so began the treatment. I completed it about three days ago. I stopped taking Prevalight and have experienced no diarrhea for about two days! First time in nearly two years with no diarrhea when I wasn't taking an anti-diarrhetic for nearly two years!

Thinking Outloud

I am wondering about how to make this blog a bit more helpful to you.

I suspect that you don't find my complaints about my health vary helpful.

Still, all I know is my own experience.

It might be good for me, and perhaps for you too, for me to give a positive slant to my experiences related to my health.

Doesn't see easy to be positive, honest, optimistic, and motivated all at once.

Nicolo Zeno?

Please tell me something of Nicolo Zeno's 1393 discovery of an Augustan monastery in Greenland. It may have been St. Olaf's at Unatoq on Gael Hawke Bay. Tell me anything about this Zeno. Was he known to have been in the Orkney Islands in 1395?

Did Nicolo have a son called Antonio who along with Sir James Gunn attempted to take 12 ships to "Middle America" in 1398?

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Via Eden and Petra

Around 825 BC there was an active and well used camel caravan route form Yemen to Palestine which was probably more important than was the Palestine/Mesopotamia route. It not only moved balsam, myrrh, frankincense and other products of the area, but also goods from Africa and India.

The tourist destination of Petra was more important in this BC period as trade destination. Later the Romans thought the trade through Petra so that it became central to their Province of Arabia Petra.

Yemenis traveling that route may have been passing through Eden.

For More on the Arabian Penisula

and Yemen check:
http://desertonfire.blogspot.com

You might tell Amazon.com about it too.

NM Notes

As US forces came to dominate what we now call New Mexico the Pueblos tried to revolt again. Cannon of the US artillery slaughtered them. The Indians of the Pueblos and the Mexicans did have the satisfaction of seeing US forces take over the job of fighting the Comanche, Navajo, and Apache they had defended themselves against for so long. That fighting occupied most of the US Army for half a century. American fighting men's blood has ever been offered.

Finally US forces dominated Spanish, Mexican, French, Navajo, Apache, Comanche and all who stood before them in the area.

Treaties made with Indians and with those holding Spanish land grants were pushed aside. Americans made treaties and did not honor them. The land, person, and dignity of others was callously dishonored. Our word was worthless to them.

Still, NM kept much of its beauty even as it seemed to be being exploited to death. American capital financed cattlemen, even Southern cattlemen. Mining corporations were financed. Oilmen were financed.

Even men who seemed to love only money and power came to love that land of enchantment, though not in the same way as did those who came before the Apache and Navajo.

The Queen of Sheba

Yemeni people knew the Queen of Sheba.
There are histories mentioning that the Persians took Yemen from the the Abyssinians in about 570 AD. As you know Ethiopia was called Abyssinia. As you may not know there is excellent evidence that there was a Semitic speaking presence in Ethiopia at least as early as 2000BC. It is very likely that Sabaeans like and in contact with the Sabaeans of Yemen were the carriers of that language. It is probable that The Queen spoke that language.

Okay, for a time before 570 AD conquest by Persians those who ruled in Yemen where called by some Abyssinians.

Yemen of the Sayhad

Yemen was one of the most important trading and navigation centers on earth. They are associated with the Nabatean Arabs which I have written about, but don't remember where. Check them out in Wikipedia.

People of Yemen enjoyed a high level of culture long before Moses was in Egypt. Later they were central ti the Roman spice trade. The Romans referred to Yemen as Arabia Felix, Happy Arabia.,

The earliest Yemeni culture we know much about besides the Nabataea is the Sabaena, both, I believe, Semitic. They traded far. They traded with Mediterranean people and with Egyptians. They also traded in all of South Asia, the east African Coast,
and much of South East Asia. They were probably carrying on much of this trade 2000 years before Christ. The people of the Sabaena Kingdom were carrying on this trade as late as the first century BC.

Yemen

For info on Yemen check the news, Wikipedia, and my recent post to http:pointtopower.blogspot.com

Sayhad

My good friend Rex has me thinking a bit about the Yemeni Republic.
I've thought a back story might be both interesting and useful. However, some may, at first, think I have gone way to far back. However, your teachers thought it was important that you know your connections to Europe, Rome, Greece, Persia, Egypt and the Sea People. Others thought it important that you understand your connections to the Christian Church, Jesus, Moses, Abraham, Noah, and his fathers.

Yemen has formed a republic as we have. It think that it is the only republic on the Arabian Peninsula. The available history of our dealings with Yemen are scant and, in part, depressingly bad. In spite of our not entirely honorable dealings with us, the choose to follow us and France to republicanism. That is they seem to find our philosophy more worthy than our actions.

Yemen has shown as little tendency to theocracy as have we.

To be continued.

Or, Am I History?

I'd like to know you, dear reader.
Id like to know more about you to better serve you, dear reader.
Dear reader, I'd like to know what you like.
Is there anything unusual or different that I might know or like that you might like to read about here?
Please fell free to tell me 'yes,' 'no,' or 'go to hell.'
I'd love to hear from you.