New&Noteworthy 2022
FONTAINEBLEAU – FRANCE
A HISTORY OF FALSEHOOD
Is LYING a necessity of life?
TRICKSTER MAKES THIS WORLD
PS363
VAN GOGH ‘IRISES’
LOOK and SEE . . .
A picture-painting is a voiceless poem
PHRA ACHARN CHAH:
Watch your thoughts, for they become words
Watch your words, for they become actions
Watch your actions, for they become habits
Watch your habits, for they become character
Watch your character for it becomes your DESTINY
A FICTICIOUS STORY
MAY ONE DAY
BECOME A REALITY
WHEN MADE
INTO A MOVIE WITH
FLESH AND BLOOD “CHARACTERS”
WE LIVE IN A UNIVERSE WHERE REALITY IS
WHAT WE CONSTRUCT IN WORDS [Wittgenstein]
COMING UP:
THE GREAT DEBATE
ON
GOD’S BRAIN
He was a wise man who invented God
[PLATO]
The authors gave us their “field of view”: positions.
Anthropologist Lionel Tiger suggests that when villages became town/cities a hierarchy developed: Deity—King/Priest . . . in the Middle East/Levant—land of wheat/barley. The king’s duty was to defend their territory: the soldier became a necessity. The priest established rules and rites [RELIGION] given to him by the city deity: the ultimate ruler. The priest needed a retinue to feed the deity at his/her abode: the TEMPLE.
The civilizations [maize/corn and potatoes] of the Americas developed [more or less] on a similar pattern as did the civilizations [rice] of Asia.
Neuroscientist Michael McGuire thinks that “from the beginning” homo sapiens/people had to cope daily for survival under STRESS. The BRAIN selected happy/tasty foods [chemicals/ serotonin] to “sooth” brain feelings. [Biblical Noah sipped wine] In the past, congregations [religious establishments] provided brain-soothing [hope] feelings. In this century, mega music festivals and sport events [the Olympics; Qatar: soccer; Wimbledon: tennis] are our valves.
Attitude is everything: Get a grip on your mind [Buddha]. YOGA is “in”.
I have been repeatedly implored by a FAN to be the moderator for God’s Brain.
Herewith MY input.
So—to begin with—I thank JULIA CHILD who showed us on television how to cook “haute cuisine”.
I had to write an archaeology essay and I thought of FOOD: WHEN DID WE BEGIN TO COOK? I started [this was 1968] with the beginning and on to the Neolithic period better known as The Stone Age. And I asked a Dutch artist friend to design a book cover because I had a “hunch” it might become a “tome”. [Just as Julia’s published cook books!]
Twenty years later [returning to Philadelphia], I asked Bernard Wales, my professor, if someone had already written on this subject. I got the green light!
That’s when my odyssey began—having decided by then to concentrate on what I called the “belly-foods” [staff of life]: wheat, barley, and oats—rice—maize/corn—potatoes.
Alas, I realized that I had too much on my plate! Science is a never-ending quest: especially about T I M I N G and thanks to technology to more information.
However, I’m determined to finish/recreate—NEOLITHIC CULINARY DELIGHTS—before I turn 90!
THE HUMAN JOURNEY
HUNGER IS THE BEST CHEF
In the beginning there was the TONGUE
And the tongue lapped water
And the tongue licked eatables
Foraging—fingering edibles
Cupping hands—sipping; scooping seeds
Lips and tongue—mouth munchin
A toddler licks his plate clean
A child whets her finger to pick up a cookie crumb
Cocktail party: finger-foods
TWO STEADY FEET
The vehicle to FIND FOOD
Propelling—MOVING FOREVER
WANDERLUST
TWO MAGIC HANDS
For a group looking for FOOD [the fossil fuel of human energy]
TONGUE and HANDS became TOOLS for COMMUNICATION
to FEED the hungry BRAIN;
entrance to the MIND
WITHOUT OUR MEMORIES—MIND—WHO WOULD WE BE
In Eden a nightingale in a rose bush sang her heart out!
Cradling her infant, Eve trilled her tongue: tra-la-la my love!
Beetles were chirping in full force
as a kneeling Adam voiced: I hold your hand!
What is your mother tongue?
THE TOOLMAKERS and INVENTORS
In the beginning . . . there was the finger digging for edibles.
Hungry, she looked around for a longer finger!
And then one of them smiled . . . and added at the end a flint!
Voila: The spear!
Dig up an idea
When we became flesh-eaters
the concept/idea of the FORE-ARM as a TOOL
became the “HANDLE of the AX”
FOR CUTTING UP-------MEAT
So David triumphed
over the Philistines
with a sling and a stone
[1 Sam 17:50]
In the Levant: stone throwing was still practiced in the 20th century.
THE HUMAN STORY
ACCORDING TO OLGA
The story of “WANDERLUST” is the story of “HUNGER” : of humans staying alive and adapting to their environment—OUT OF AFRICA into the WORLD: the Mediterranean basin and the Middle/Far East.
EVENTUALLY . . . human groups encountered each other. When they weren’t hungry, they’d sit around the campfire. Small children, laughing, chased each other; the older children pranced around, clapping their hands. The adults communicated using hands, mouths, and uttering sounds. When the groups parted, the small children embraced and the older ones touched each other’s mouths, making kissing sounds. The adults were all smiles; the men waving their spears and the women their digging sticks.
EVENTUALLY . . . each group had to face the sad moment when a mother could no longer walk because of a foot infection. It was then that her sturdy son carried her on his back: day after day. Around the campfire the males had to make a grim decision: abandon her so that the group could stay alive—walking to satisfy their hunger. The women and children huddled around the lame mother; who knew her destiny. But then the son approached them and proposed to stay with his mother if two women, he pointed at them, would also stay and help her getting well. The children cheered, pointing at the mother and then at themselves: They were going to keep her company. And so it was decided that two adult males would also stay and keep them safe from beasts of prey.
EVENTUALLY . . . it was the bonding of mothers and their children that started the “revolution” of growing FOOD and building shelters in their chosen territory/region that became the foundation/basis of ALL subsequent inventions: tools for survival.
Necessity is the mother of invention
THE HISTORY OF HUMANS
IS
THE HISTORY OF LANGUAGE
In the beginning . . . there was the tongue
CAMPFIRE TALK :
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
From campfire talk to
mass speech on the Internet
Benjamin Franklin invented
the lightning ROD; then the light bulb
was invented:
LIGHT WITHOUT FIRE
IMAGINATION is the BEGINNING
of all magical operations
I can dream up anything:
Frankenstein!
WITTGENSTEIN
Imagination depends on perception: the echo of a THOUGHT
[A thought—an inward/silent picture becoming an outward/sound expression]
AS FREE AS A BIRD
So . . . human groups became “tillers of the soil”, creating oasises—little Edens—near water, sharing this precious commodity with other animals. Observing the beavers, they learned how to make “bricks from clay” to erect shelters for themselves; and irrigation channels to cultivate FOOD in protected plots.
The small children paid attention to their mothers who showed them how to grow their food. The older boys occupied themselves by making objects, and ushered into the world the reed flute and the drum.The older girls watched the men forming bricks, and one of them had a creative idea [a light bulb moment] and with her magic hands gave birth to a vessel—for cooking food in water—that she then set in the campfire: pottery became a cultural identity.
Wedgewood china
When their hands were idle, humans gathered and they began to wonder about: who made the trees, the animals on the ground, the water creatures and the birds in the sky? One late afternoon as they sat in the cooling shade of a cluster of flowering trees a small bird opened her beak and caroled for her audience about divine beings living on the stars.
LET THERE BE CHANGE
And so . . . humans made images of divine beings whom they idealized because those magic hands had made the plants and trees: their FOOD. When the full moon shone on their dwellings, women played the flute and the older boys thumped drums. The children swayed their arms and stomped their feet on the ground as they voiced their excitement.
Then two leaders proclaimed that the divine beings should live amongst them and paid homage to. They instructed the populace to build a sanctuary that would unite heaven and earth—a holy house—:THE TEMPLE
The official pecking order—the hierarchy—was established
TO BE CONTINUED
June
THE DIVINE LANDLORD
One leader was the guardian of their territory and ruled as king. His land was tilled “for free” by the populace. The second leader, his title was priest, became the deity’s mouthpiece and ordained custodian of the god’s rules and regulations: THE COMMANDMENTS. One of the duties of the priest was to manage the divine landlord’s food tributes. Collected from the populace, surplus grains were stored at the temple. The king’s soldiers protected the temple granary.
To become a landowner, every female with children had to single out a male to be their father because—every household/family was allotted a plot of land/private property for growing food. Thus, for agricultural purposes, was established—as the core of the emerging communities—the family. Land was passed on: inherited.
Property—with boundaries—became the prime mover
for “land-grabbing”. [still practiced: Putin/Ukraine]
MEMORY—stored information—was a TOOL fundamental for living and learning.
Memory—to remember/recollect/commit/have—a notion or idea coming into the mind again as previously perceived known or felt; keep the memory alive; enshrine in the memory; that inward eye; cast the eye back; calling forth a memory run in the head.
Nat King Cole song: Unforgettable
Poetry: the art of arranging WORDS to a pattern of sounds and rhythm—its role: a means of access to the collective memory of a song and dance culture
At the temple, people worshipped their food provider by chanting and dancing at the sounds of drums and flutes—adding to the merry-making, girls waved rattles. Next to the divine dining room was a plateau where the deity’s statue lorded and where the priest hummed his hymn as he played the lyre.
The drum became the mother of percussion instruments
The flute became the mother of wind instruments
The lyre became the mother of string instruments
A NEUROSCIENTIST is a person
who “studies/decodes/unlocks” the neuron circuit/networking of the brain.
WITHOUT OUR MEMORIES—WHO WOULD WE BE?
Dementia: gradual death of neurons
DEATH DESTROYS MEMORY
THE BRAIN
IS
the organ of adaptive behavior
and
is nourished by the FOOD we eat
obtained
from the intestines/guts
the micro-biome
Gut “feelings”
WE ARE WHAT WE EAT
Our varied FOOD intake—plants, fruits, flesh: our fossil fuel—resulted in the expansion of brain size and cortical activity that in turn: added information—fed ideas—to new perceptions in the MIND. I CHANGED MY MIND . . .
MURDER, MAGIC, AND MEDICINE
Oxford University Press, 1992
This is an account of modern medicine from its ROOTS in folk medicine. The book explains the chemical basis of modern pharmacology: On how the use and abuse of natural products in various countries throughout the ages has led to the development of many of the drugs we now take for granted.
WITTGENSTEIN:
What is troubling us IS the tendency to believe that the MIND is like a “little man within”
Known as: God’s flesh
The Age of Bacteria: Yeasts are fungi. Humans and yeast have many genes in common. Many generative diseases are due to mutated genes that cause the buildup of misshapen proteins inside cells. Why is it that nerve cells begin to die? [Bubbles, bread and beer: by Olivia Judson; IHT June 30, 2010, page 7]
Grain: BARLEY “In vino veritas”
Fermented grains and fruits gave us CIVILIZATION: A feasting culture developed.
To relax: Speaking their minds while “toasting”.
The IDEA of god served the human brain—managing anxieties—by reducing STRESS.
Prophet Isaiah—14:11—Maggots are your bed and worms are your blanket.
What’s wrong with believing in an afterlife?
Illusion is the first of all pleasures: self-deception is like a DRUG
THE POWER OF MIND is infinite;
religions acknowledge that GOD IS INFINITE
Neural activity—feelings and emotions—turned into thought:
As our thoughts and thinking—so is our MIND: circulation of IDEAS
Her nerves are on edge; a bundle of nerves
Nerves of steel; touching a nerve
Heartfelt condolences
His mood-swings are unpredictable
Mental strain; a crack up
Get a grip on your mind
Bible: Old Testament—EXODUS 20:15: I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God.
The green-eyed monster JEALOUSY: unyielding as the grave, it burns like a blazing FIRE, like a mighty FLAME
Long before people TOLD STORIES of being abducted by aliens, and seeing UFO’s,
tales of sorcerers, and science fiction characters,
ancient people TOLD STORIES of being visited by angels, or gods, or demons.
CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS [1949—2011]
Religion is part of our cultural and intellectual history. It was our first attempt at literature, at cosmology, making sense of where we are in the universe, our first attempt at healthcare, believing in faith healing, and at philosophy.
BLAISE PASCAL [June 19,1623]
Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious convictions.
WITTGENSTEIN\
We live in a linguistic universe where reality is what we construct in WORDS.
Shark Tank show on television
Finding our “ROOTS”
has become very popular since the discovery of DNA
I HIGHLY RECOMMEND READING:
[www.oup,com]
THE PLANET IN A PEBBLE
[this is]
[DEEP HISTORY]
I had tears in my eyes when I finished reading this book,
wishing I could embrance the author for opening my eyes.
In the BEGINNING . . . : the atoms of a pebble—a metal factory
[includes “lithium”]
THAT’S
HOW LIFE “HAPPENED” ON OUR EARTH
Computers and mobile phones depend on lithium
CALCULUS is the language of the creator of the universe
Every IDEA, no matter how outdated, was once modern, exciting and new.
Future discoveries can overthrow what was once SEEN as the truth: The power of science to
move on [action].
INFERNO by Dan Brown—published 2013.
The novel’s final main issue is about OVER-POPULATION and the consequences. It predicts a pandemic [COVID ?] to “cull the herd”. Is this author our modern-day Nostradamus?
COMING UP:
I have been asked to moderate on FREE SPEECH
THE KINGDOM OF SPEECH
Published 2016—author: Tom Wolfe
July
According to the author:
Man couldn’t create artifacts until he could speak [“had speech”].
Handbook of Amazonian Languages by David L. Everett—herewith quotes regarding the Piraha tribes in Brazil: This tribe was the most basic prototype of Homo sapiens. They spoke only in the present tense; past and future were “other day”; they made no artifacts except for the bow and arrow; no dance and music “representation”.
[It seems to me that they lacked CURIOSITY; that started with (Old Testament) Genesis, Eve listening to the serpent telling her to eat the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. When the couple ate the fruit the penalty for KNOWING about “space and time” was the knowledge of DEATH. That’s why the saying goes: Curiosity killed the cat.
Mr. Everett wrote that speech is man-made—it is an artifact—man’s power over all other creatures in a way EVOLUTION couldn’t begin with.
If there would be no LANGUAGE, there would be no LOGIC. [Wittgenstein]
About 3000 BCE—WRITING was invented at the Temple by priests/scribes primarily for recording deposits of grains as well as for exchange of goods between parties.
WRITING WAS PERMANENT MEMORY/SPEECH: storage of IDEAS on stone, clay, animal skins, papyrus, and lately computer chips.
WRITING is the graphic expression of ACTUAL SPEECH
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Marcus Aurelius:
You have power over your mind—not outside events.
Realize this, and you will find strength.
Very little is needed to make a happy life;
it is all within yourself,
in your WAY of THINKING.
The PEN is the TONGUE of the MIND [Horace]
Memory is the mother of the nine “muses”—
cultural representations, fundamental for living and learning.
The art of memory
Plato and Aristotle at the agora; painted by Raphael
They were discussing “mnemonics”. Mnemom means mindful. Memorize: using a memory aid.
SPEECH is a mnemonic system comprising of WORDS.
In ancient ATHENS [Greece] the AGORA was the meeting place for DEBATE [SPEECH].
THE GLOBAL AGORA:
THE INTERNET
21st CENTURY:
Universities should be marketplaces of competing IDEAS
IS FREE SPEECH
A WEAPON OF MASS DESTRUCTION ?
TWITTER: Everyone has a voice
FACEBOOK: The soapbox
THE FRANKFURT BOOK FAIR
Freedom of the WORD is not negotiable.
The fair is a place for DIALOGUE.
Heinrich Heine, German poet, essayist [1797-1856]
WHERE THEY BURN BOOKS,
THEY WILL ULTIMATELY ALSO BURN PEOPLE.
JEREMIAH 9:3
They make ready their TONGUE like a bow to shoot lies.
TENNYSON;
A lie which is a lie may be met and fought with outright; but a lie which is part truth is harder to fight.
YOU MAY RIDICULE, INSULT AND OFFEND:
BUT YOU MAY NOT LIE
Mark A. SAMMUT, author on philosophy of Law. The Times of Malta, Oct. 19, 2010, On:
THE RIGHT TO RIDICULE
Mr. Sammut quoted the law philosopher Ronald Dworkin: Ridicule is a distinct kind of expression; its substance cannot be repackaged in a less offensive rhetorical form without expressing something very different from what was intended [cartoons]. So, in a democracy, no one, however powerful or impotent, can have a right NOT TO BE INSULTED OR OFFENDED. Mr. Sammut also quoted the Belgian law philosopher Frank van Dun: Telling a lie, as distinct from uttering a mistaken opinion or believing what, in fact, is a lie and passing it on as the truth one believes it is, is unlawful.
There is NO RIGHT TO LIE:
YOU MAY NOT LIE.
Debating FREE SPEECH with the Supreme Court: WHAT IS HATE SPEECH? It’s SPEECH we HATE. [George Jonas, journalist; Canada National Post, March 2, 2013]
FREE SPEECH: what is left over when a community has determined in advance what it does not want to HEAR. [censorship]
Better a thousand fold abuse of FREE SPEECH than denial of FREE SPEECH. [Charles Bradlaugh, 19th century British Parliamentarian]
If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to TELL people what they do not want to HEAR. [George Orwell, author]
The truth you believe and cling to makes you unavailable to HEAR anything new. [Pema Chodron, Zen teacher]
The essence of freedom of expression is the freedom to EXPRESS IDEAS which offend, shock or disturb. [Owen Bonnici, Parliamentarian; the Times of Malta, Feb. 26, 2009: CENSOR CENSORSHIP NOW.]
On what is freedom of expression: ‘Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist’. [Salman Rushdie, author]
FREE SPEECH by definition is for the STUFF you don’t approve. [Mark Steyn, Canadian journalist; author of AMERICA ALONE. The book is considered politically incorrect because the author wrote that the West’s acceptance of “multiculturalism” is a real suicide bomb]
In the US it is legally OK to SAY offensive things about a religion and thus provoke hurt or anger. If some want it “criminalized”, then we no longer are supporters of FREE SPEECH.
On religious freedom of expression
Until writing developed, the oral-tradition of “telling a story”—like well-known mythical figure Gilgamesh—had to be someone who was capable of inventing it, and not just for entertainment but as an explanation of humankind’s existence.
The mythmakers/founders of divine beliefs were regarded as the God’s “associate” [prophet]: his mouthpiece.
HEAVEN IS MY THRONE AND THE EARTH IS MY FOOTSTOOL
The Sumerian sun-god Shamash represented Heaven and Earth the stool on which the god rested.
Blaise Pascal
Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious convictions.
The Medieval Inquisition
In 1199 Pope Innocent III declared “heresy”—Greek for choice: to believe in unsanctioned dogma—a crime that would bring God’s furor down upon Christendom as he was known to be a jealous God [Exodus 20:15]. Thus, an individual who invented a new sect, or followed one, was proclaimed a heretic.
HERETICS HAD TO BE PERSECUTED
Pagans, those worshipping the SUN-TRIAD—the rising sun, the noon sun, and the setting sun—had to be wiped out.
In 1310 Marguerite Porete was burned at the stake for “believing” that, when spiritually united with God, one had no need for the laws and sacraments of the Church.
Erasmus of Rotterdam wrote that religion is the cult of the “invisible”.
When the Jews had their sacred scripture [the Old Testament Bible] translated into Greek circa 300 BCE, MOSES became a famous prophet. Supposedly, he wrote the original teachings [the Pentateuch] in Hebrew. Moses related conversations with his God and instructions given, as well as adventures for conquering the land God had promised to him and his people. According to later prophets, one day a baby boy would be born in Bethlehem with the name Jesus whose parents were Mary and Joseph. And so it came to pass. Then, in Jerusalem, Jesus was hung on the cross with initials INRI. His disciples left to preach the teachings of Jesus the Christ, Son of God. Paul of Tarsus, upon reflections on the road to Damascus to persecute Christians, had a revelation and became a flag-bearer for Christianity. His letters are most revealing. [read about St. Paul in my Chapter 9].
The Four Gospels are the teachings of the Christian New Testament: with the fundamental doctrine of the TRINITY—Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Thomas Paine was prosecuted for blasphemy in England for writing and publishing Age of Reason where he questioned the New Testament teaching us to believe that the Almighty had impregnated a woman engaged to be married. [Matthew 1:18]
CAN RELIGION BE SUBJECT TO “ENGINEERING”?
CAN ONE “ANALYZE” GOD?
TO BE CONTINUED
August
THE SACRED GENERATOR
I AM THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD
Imagine life without ECO=Electric Company.
Back to making candles?
The deity of the Hebrew Bible [Old Testament] is MALE.
The deity of the Christian Bible [New Testament] is MALE.
The deity of the Koran is MALE.
The deity of the Grantha [India: Sikhism] has NO gender.
The COW, symbol of mother Earth, is sacred to Hindu India; Hindus worship numerous deities.
Buddhism has no deity.
The deity of Japan, the land of the rising sun: Shinto sun goddess Amaterasu is FEMALE.
The deity of ancient Sumer was sun god Shamash: a MALE.
HEAVEN IS MY THRONE AND EARTH IS MY FOOTSTOOL
Stele of King Hammurabi [circa 1750 BCE] with his Code of Laws:
JUSTICE FOR ALL
FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND RELIGION
According to this book the Roman senator Cato the younger [95-46 BCE] was “martyred” for championing FREE SPEECH. In the early 18th century a series of letters [Cato’s Letters] were published in the London Journal. Letter 15: THE GREAT BULWARK (guardianship) OF LIBERTY—metaphor for free speech—was about freedom of thought and liberty and caused a tsunami of uproar.
Alexis de Tocqueville [1805-1859] wrote DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA. The dominance of majority opinion carries its own set of dangers since “it” represses not only all contest, but all controversy. “Those who believe it is their right to impose their beliefs on others their different values and views do not believe in democratic policies.”
National Post Canada:
The Greatest Pain In Dying Is Not Physical, letters to the editor, April 23, 2010.
The letters opposing Bill C-384 completely miss the point of a citizen’s right to self-determined euthanasia. Why do they think it is their right to decide how much pain, physical and/or emotional, I will be forced to endure? It is my life, not theirs, to determine what I want to do with it. Their values are not my values and their views should not rule over my personal decisions. This is my decision to make. We can decide whether we live or die. That is for me to determine as a free citizen. Those who believe it is their right to impose their beliefs on another person should either see a psychiatrist or attend courses in democratic policy.
1643—John Milton of England wrote [AREOPAGITICA]—a plea for press freedom. “Give me the liberty to know, to utter and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.”
1680—Huegenot Pierre Bayle fled to the Dutch Republic when he wrote FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE: Philosophical Commentary—that reason and philosophy, not theology and religious doctrine were the proper instruments to determine questions of conscience and tolerance. In his HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL DICTIONARY published in 1697 he declared that liberty is what reigns in the Republic of Letters. The only empire is that of truth and reason.
1747—MAN A MACHINE by Julien Offray de la Mettrie was published by Elie Luzac. Across Europe and the Dutch Republic all hell broke loose. The book was banned and burned. Luzac’s defense [attributed to Voltaire] of free speech was the right to publish a book containing IDEAS widely deemed utterly loathsome—even by himself!
COLONIAL AMERICA
Between 1750-1776 the battleground of the Revolution was led by newspapers and pamphlets [pen and paper] discussing the “relationship” between Britain and the American colonies. Print technology had democratized America’s public sphere.
1636—Rhode Island was founded by Puritan Roger Williams after he was kicked out of the Massachusetts Bay colony for his dangerous “opinions”.
1649—Maryland [property of Lord Baltimore] became a safe haven for persecuted Catholics. Blasphemy, including the denial of the Trinity, was a capital offense.
1681—Pennsylvania was founded by Quaker William Penn as a refuge for his church.
1774—Thomas Paine, a corset maker from Britain residing in the colonies, wrote COMMON SENSE. When men yield up the privilege of THINKING, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon. The book was widely read and “changed the Mind” of many men. John Adams wrote to Thomas Jefferson: History is to ascribe the American Revolution to Thomas Paine.
July 4, 1776—Congress approved the draft of the DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE: Liberty and the Rights of Man.
1787—New Constitution to replace the articles—First Amendment: Freedom of religion, speech, press and petition; signed 1791.
1788—The demand for press freedom spread from the colonies to the Dutch Republic and caused an uprising—that was squashed. The “patriotten” fled to France. July 14, 1789, in Paris an armed mob broke into the prison and torched it. Bastille Day is still celebrated today on July 14th.
October 5, 1789, Versailles: King Louis 16th signed The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.
1793—AGE OF REASON by Thomas Paine created a furor in England because he questioned Christianity [Gospel of Matthew 1:18]: That God “committed debauchery” with a woman engaged to be married—and this believe is called FAITH. His effigy was burned. He fled to France.
July 1798—Congress passed the Sedition Act—violating the First Amendment—It’s a crime for American citizens to “print”, “utter”, or “publish” any false, scandalous, and malicious writing about the government.
1825—John Stuart Mill published an essay: ON RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION to show that blasphemy persecutions were indefensible and counterproductive. Copies of AGE OF REASON were sold freely. Press freedom prevailed.
CONFUCIUS
[551-479 BCE]:
THE SUPERIOR MAN UNDERSTANDS WHAT IS RIGHT;
THE INFERIOR MAN UNDERSTANDS WHAT WILL SELL.
19th CENTURY
THE RETURN OF THE AUTHORITY OF
THRONE AND ALTAR IN EUROPE
FRANCE: Robespierre started the GREAT TERROR
that spread all over Europe and the Dutch Republic
It was against the law to revile CHRISTIANITY
Von Metternich [Austria] believed press freedom to be the SCOURGE OF THE WORLD
The fight for freedom of the press was a holy war;
the holy war of the 19th century.
IT IS BETTER TO DIE FOR SOMETHING
THAN TO LIVE FOR NOTHING
To Be Continued
September
19th CENTURY AMERICA
FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND RELIGION
The PEN is the TONGUE of the MIND (Horace)
Hebrew book of Proverbs 18:2—
The TONGUE has the POWER of life and death
Rudyard Kipling:
WORDS are the most powerful drug used by mankind
THE OLYMPIC TORCH
LADY LIBERTY
ZOROASTRIANISM:
God Ahura Mazda is represented by the sacred symbol of FIRE—TRUTH
The cosmic laws of the universe, creation, and energy
Between good (truth, justice, life) and evil (destruction, injustice, death)
The DRAMA of life and death: Birth is the beginning and death is a destination.
There is no death for the body, only an exchange of atoms—their changing places and taking different forms is what we call “death”. In REALITY: nothing is born,, nothing is dead.
THE SUPERNATURAL IS THE PRODUCT OF THE EVER-ACTIVE HUMAN BRAIN
WHERE DID GOD COME FROM?
[You believe there is God OR you believe there is no God—you just believe something that you do not know. Belief essentially means that you are assuming something that you do NOT KNOW]
RELIGION
The glue of society—group cohesion
To manage STRESS—sooth fears
To give meaning to existence
Descartes:
Cogito ergo sum—I think, therefore I AM.
[Kant: Who is the I that thinks and is thought?]
THE BOOK OF EXODUS 3:14
God said to Moses: I AM WHO I AM
This is what you are to say to the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you. Say to the Israelites, the LORD, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you. This is my name forever: the LORD, the God of the Hebrews.
BOOK OF DEUTERONOMY 5:
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
Hear, O Israel, the decrees and laws I declare in your hearing today.
Prophet Jeremiah 7:23—Obey me and I will be your God and you will be my people.
If everyone is “saved” then it doesn’t matter how one lives—Through the LAW we become conscious of SIN (Romans 3:20). The sting of death is SIN and the power of SIN is the LAW (1 Cor. 15:56).
There is nothing good or bad but THINKING made it so
(Shakespeare)
In 1310 Marguerite Porete was burned at the stake for “believing” that, when spiritually united with God, one had no need for the laws and sacraments of the Church.
WILLIAM PENN
Pennsylvania was founded [1681] by Quaker William Penn as a refuge for his church. In mid-17th century England a Protestant Christian denomination formally known as the Religious Society of Friends arose; today they are better known as Quakers.
GEORGE FOX
The Quaker’s guiding star was the teachings of St. Peter: Praise to God for a Living Hope. “You are” a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood—direct experience with “the Light of God” was their goal. Some early Quaker women preached the Gospel travelling through Britain and “overseas”.
Quakers separated from the established Church of England. They avoid creeds [laws] and hierarchical structures [sacraments], refuse to participate in war, refuse to swear oaths, demand social justice and are teetotalers.
Some Friends/Quakers are non-theist; their “spiritual practices” do not rely on the existence of God.
Services may be “un-programmed: silence until someone arises and becomes vocal” OR programmed: that include singing and a Bible message by a pastor. Some meetings of both types have “recorded Ministers” present—Friends recognized for their gift of vocal ministry.
In 1947, a Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the British Friends Service Council and the American Friends Service Committee.
This is the biography of John Chapman (1774-1845),
a Swedenborgian evangelist known as JOHNNY APPLESEED.
According to the author, the subject/issue of heaven and hell was much debated in those days. So, as he was planting apple seeds, the evangelist promoted Swedenborg’s writings on heaven and hell by leaving behind some pages.
EMANUEL SWEDENBORG,
SCIENTIST AND MYSTIC
John Pitcairn: Uncommon Entrepreneur
A Biography
In the late 19th century John Pitcairn bought the land that is now Bryn Athyn Borough for a church community. The cathedral was built by his son Raymond over a 30-year period and completed in the 1940s.
A new revelation of truth to mankind
COMING UP: a surprise story!
October
I WASN’T BORN TO BE A WALLFLOWER
A MEMOIR BY OLGA PITCAIRN---------COPY RIGHT
A wallflower girl is she who sits by the wall at a dance or other social activities—often for want of a partner because she may be shy, reserved . . . or a plain-Jane.
St. Petersburg, Florida, 1962
I took this photo while we were visiting Laren’s parents: Marijke, his mother (57), and his father (69), a man-of-the-cloth, Theodore Pitcairn.
CATALOGUE NUMBER: 363
This is the remarkable story of how I, Olga Pitcairn, at the age of 26, obtained ownership of “Wallflowers and Forget-Me-Nots in a Ceramic Vase” by Philippe Smit, a Dutch/French painter. Philippe was the step-father of my mother-in-law.
I still remember her saying—with a chuckle in her voice—“Liefje (Dutch for dearest), you are unforgettable!” So, cherishing memory, and as a token of my gratitude, I thought it would be a novel idea to title this memoir: I WASN’T BORN TO BE A WALLFLOWER.
Forget-me-nots symbolize true love and respect. When you give someone these tiny blooms it represents a promise that you will always remember them and will keep them in your thoughts.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
May 1964
My heart was pounding as I was telling Doctor Goldfarb about the family’s mentally-handicapped children, three generations, and the “unconvential” sex I had had to endure these past four years. My gynecologist leaned towards me across his desk and asked why I had not disclosed this to him before. Now shaking, all worked up, I confessed that it had taken all my courage. I wiped my eyes dry, hands trembling, with a handkerchief I took from my purse. Then, heaving a deep sigh, I blurted out, “I’m ashamed, Doctor. Terribly ashamed!” Tears flowing freely, I whispered that I felt humiliated being used for his own pleasure; that he didn’t care how I felt about it.
As I kept wiping tears away, the doctor stared at me in silence until I had composed myself.
“Get a divorce,” the doctor said calmly.
For a few seconds I was unable to breath. Then my heart raced. My voice cracked when I repeated his words.
Dr. Alvin Goldfarb rose, extended his hand saying, “And get yourself a good lawyer.”
I drove in a zombie-like state, my inner compass guiding me direction Meadowbrook: home. Being told to divorce, I had to face the music. I thought of confessing to my parents first and discuss my situation.
It was late afternoon when I parked my car at their house in Bucks County. Mama was, of course, very surprised to see me, but noticing my somber face she ushered me into the living room and we sat on the sofa. Hesitantly, Mama inquired about my visit with the gynecologist. I broke out into tears. She went to the kitchen and returned holding glasses with sherry. She nodded—and we drank in silence.
“The doctor told me to get a divorce,” I said, still choking on the word, as I put my empty glass on the coffee table. I took from my handbag a book: Masochism In Modern Man by Theodore Reik. “I told him about our sex life, and about the family secret, those simpletons.”
Mama held the book as if it was a poisonous snake.
“Kinky sex.” I wiped away more tears.
Mama left and returned with a tissue box. “What goes on in your bedroom is private,” she said and sat in a nearby armchair “I’m your mother. Please make it short.”
I had no wish to dwell on the subject either, so I explained that masochism connotes a person who enjoys the pleasure of being trod upon. Laren liked being a good-for-nothing and reinforced this by having breakfast in bed, getting up at ten, and at eleven in the morning making phone calls for a luncheon date. He abhorred “work”: He was a good-for-nothing man. Laren enjoyed/provoked verbal lashings; and physical beatings—reminding me of St. Sebastian on the cross. Humiliation was his middle name. His foibles: He worshiped an idol—a fetish of his choice so he could “perform”—having sex; the fetish, his equipment/sex enhancement, supplanted the female. Fetishism is an aberration/disease/illness = it is a paraphilia/parapathia and the end is homosexuality. Fetishism is a kind of religion: repentance and pleasure together. Another memoir will discuss in detail what perversion is all about: The inflicted person fears nothing more than to be “cured”.
The following day Papa summoned Laren to the house. The dirty word divorce, recommended by the gynecologist, was repeated over and over until I broke down. Laren was to consult a psychiatrist at Abington Memorial Hospital, a stone’s throw from Meadowbrook/Huntingdon Valley. Mama called her sister in Austria. Two days later they took me to the airport.
Six weeks later in Vienna, I opened with trepidation the letter from the psychiatrist with his evaluation of Laren’s paraphilia. At least he had showed up and tried to get a grip on his condition. I consulted my aunt and uncle.
My parents and Laren were at the airport in Philadelphia to welcome me “home”. The stress during my Austrian stay had affected me and I had developed a very bad sore throat. A few days later I had a tonsillectomy, I believe at Chestnut Hill Hospital.
A week later we flew to the Bahamas. Laren didn’t take along the special case that contained the necessary equipment; so I relaxed.
Bridges Cay - Abaco, Bahamas
We returned to Philadelphia after Labor Day. Together we paid the psychiatrist a visit. Laren was told not to use his fetish idol when “making love”. Well, as I had feared: no idol no love. I wanted to inform the doctor but on second thought refrained—hoping that Laren would inform him. However, on October 9, my 26th birthday, I made up my mind to divorce. I asked Papa to get me a reputable lawyer. He chose Ballard, Spahr, Andrews & Ingersoll of Philadelphia. I looked for an apartment to rent; and early November I moved out, informing Laren that he was not a “husband” but merely a bank account and I could not accept that.
Needless to say that Laren rang my doorbell every day? We had long talks; because he could not relate to his psychiatrist, I suggested that he talk instead with our bishop—if he would be willing. Bishop Phillip Odhner was “willing”.
Christmas 1964: we reconciled; though I would stay in my apartment until he had established a routine of visiting the bishop. And we made a “pact”—he swore on the Swedenborgian Bible—that if after two years our situation had not improved satisfactorily we would divorce amicably.
I still regret to this day that I did not insist of putting his promise in writing as I paid dearly for this: Veritas odium parit. There was no remorse. He became a sadist—a cannibal.
This episode in my life, starting October 1967, (letters from the bishop to me about the predicament of the church’s religious view on divorce) will be another memoir: TRUTH IS THE DAUGHTER OF TIME.
My final memoir, THE FINGER OF FATE, will be a review of my life.
Thanks to my mother (financial aid) and my aunt Olga (Nur weiter schreiben: Keep on writing)—their encouragement—I became an author.
April 1965: I returned officially to the marital home. One morning I visited my mother-in-law. She and her husband were in the “sun-room” having coffee. After some chit-chat she said, holding out her arms, “I’m so happy to have you back into the family fold.” We embraced. She whispered into my ear that she had missed me.
I went to my chair, happy to know I had been missed. All smiles, she looked at Theodore. She pointed to the wallflowers painting and said that he should take it down and give it to her. Mother winked at me. I held my breath as Father, a frail man, did as was bidden.
Mother smiled at me and said, “Olga, I know you love this painting.” She waved at me to join her. I took the painting as she continued: “It was a peace offering from Philippe. We made up. I want you to think of me when you look at our painting.” She blew me a kiss.
“Wallflowers is my peace offering to you.”
Wallflowers and Forget-Me-Nots in a Ceramic Vase
A CAR WAS PARKED—June 2019--AT MY FRONT STEPS
PENNSYLVANIA LICENSE PLATE;
DSL 2013
See January 2024
November
THE POWER OF INVENTION
To wear religious headgear,
a community of worshipers must first believe in a deity/deities
RELIGION WAS A RITUAL METHOD FOR LIVING
SUMER AND THE SUMERIANS
Circa 3000 BCE, the Sumerians invented cuneiform (wedge) writing on clay tablets as an administrative TOOL (commercial life) that developed quickly into literature (the Epic of Gilgamesh), mathematics and science.
CHOGHA ZANBIL ZIGGURAT, near Susa
I took these photos in 1972
The Sumerian creation story:
When the gods had to toil for food.
ENLIL and the seven great Anunakki, children of god AN, made the IGIGI, fifty junior gods, WORK—by digging the river and canals on which agricultural prosperity depended. For forty years they toiled, and then they rebelled, confronting ENLIL at night when they surrounded his temple proclaiming WAR.
ENLIL told his vizier Nusku to take up arms and defend him but Nusku was reluctant. ENLIL then ordered him to fetch AN from heaven, and ENKI as well as the Anunakki. ENLIL told them that the IGIGI had come right up to his gates. AN suggested that Nusku find out why they were disgruntled.
So, Nusku told the IGIGI that AN and ENLIL wanted to know who the instigator was of this declared war. The IGIGI replied that all of them declared war because of their hard WORK—they suffered distress and felt exploited; they even destroyed their tools!
ENLIL’S eyes filled with tears upon hearing of their hardships and asked AN to summon a god and kill him. Well, AN ordered the Anunakki to fetch birth-goddess Belet-ili: Mami/Ninhursag. Then ENKI addressed the gods, saying that Belet-ili should create LULLU. “Let Lullu bear the yoke, let MAN carry the toil of the gods.”
Mami, midwife of the gods, told the gods that to MAKE THINGS was the job of ENKI—for he cleansed everything. “Let ENKI give me the clay so that I can make LULLU,” Mami said.
ENKI revealed that on the first, seventh and fifteenth of the month he would MAKE a purifying bath. The god would be slaughtered and all the gods would be “cleaned” by a dipping. Let Belit-ili mix clay with his flesh and blood that god and man may be thoroughly mixed in the clay. Let there be Spirit from the god’s flesh. Let “IT” [spirit/breath?] proclaim LIVING MAN. The Anunakki wo administer destinies said YES.
So, Enki made a purifying bath. They slaughtered god WE who had “personality”. From his flesh and blood Mami mixed clay. She summoned the Anunakki and the IGIGI and they SPAT ON THE CLAY. Mami spoke: “You commanded me a task. I have completed it. You have slaughtered a god together with his personality. I have removed your heavy work. I have imposed your toil on man. I have loosed the yoke—I have established FREEDOM.
The gods kissed her feet, saying: “You are Mami. Now let your name be Mistress of ALL the gods: Belit-kala-ili” [Ninhursag, mother of all living things].
ENKI and the mother of all living things entered DUDU: the HOUSE OF DESTINY. And ENKI took the clay in her presence. She recited her incantation, ENKI seated before her. After she had finished her incantation, she nipped off FOURTEEN pieces of clay. Seven she put to her right [males] and seven to her left [females]. Between them she placed the “birthing-brick” and the cutter of the umbilical cord.
THE BIBLE: GENESIS 2;7
The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and the man became a LIVING BEING: A PERSON.
THE BIBLE: Book of Job 10: 8/9
Your hands shaped me and made me. Will you now turn and destroy me? Remember that you molded me like clay. Will you now turn me to dust again?
KORAN 55:16 – He created man from potter’s clay.
KORAN 96:1 – Recite in the name of your Lord who created man from clots of blood.
MAN is matter (clay) activated by the addition of DIVINE BLOOD
To DIE was to return to one’s CLAY
LIVING MAN is a memorial to the Slain God and his “spirit” likewise.
THE BIBLE: GENESIS 1:26-27
God said: Let us make man in our image, in our likeness.
So God created man in his image, male AND female he created them.
The LIFE of the universe was the CREATIVE WORD:
Language is not merely a mode of communication, it’s the outward expression of an unusual mode of thought: symbolic representation.
LANGUAGE is the doorway into our virtual world.
PLATO:
He was a wise man who invented God
THE TALMUD:
We do not SEE things as they are. We SEE them as we are.
LUDWIG FEUERBACH:
God was a projection of the needs of the human species
ERASMUS OF ROTTERDAM:
Religion is the cult of the invisible
NIETZSCHE:
Faith means the will to avoid knowing what is true
SCHOPENHAUER:
Every truth passes through three stages before it is recognized:
In the first it is ridiculed
In the second it is opposed
In the third it is regarded as self-evident.
ALBERT EINSTEIN;
Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds
THE POWER OF THE IMAGE
GENESIS 31:19
When Laban had gone to shear his sheep, Rachel stole her father’s household gods.
EXODUS 20; 3/4
You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the Lord God am a jealous God.
THE HISTORY OF THE “VEIL”
In the ancient Near East the custom regarding marriage:
The man would ask the woman to marry him. When she consented, he would take the veil (stole) from her shoulders (virginity) and drape it on her head; thereby she became his “property” and he had first claim to her children. Today’s religious custom is for the father of the bride to walk his veiled daughter to the altar where the groom waits. The couple stands together and exchange vows. Then the groom lifts her veil and they kiss; she becomes “his wife”.
GENESIS 24: Isaac and Rebekah
—65/So she took her veil and covered herself—67/Isaac brought her into the tent of his mother Sarah and he married Rebekah; she became his wife.
GENESIS 38: Judah and Tamar
—15/When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face. He went to her and said: Come now, let me sleep with you. And what will you give me to sleep with you? she asked. He promised her a young goat. She replied: Will you give me something as a pledge until you send it? He gave her his seal and its cord and the staff in his hand. And so, he slept with her. 21/Where is the shrine prostitute who was beside the road to Enaim, Judah asked the men who lived there. They replied: There hasn’t been any shrine prostitute here. 24/About three months later, Judah was told that his daughter-in-law Tamar was guilty of prostitution because she was pregnant. Judah said: Bring her out and have her burned to death. Tamar sent Judah the message that she was pregnant by the man who was the owner of this staff, cord and seal.
Temple prostitution was sacred
Temple prostitution provided income for the maintenance of staff and laborers.
A religion cannot become a global faith without books to teach
Hildegard of Bingen, also known as Saint Hildegard and the Sibyl of the Rhine, was a German Benedictine abbess and polymath active as a writer, composer, philosopher, mystic, visionary, and as a medical writer and practitioner during the High Middle Ages. [1098—1179]
21st-century monastic nuns
December
HAIR and its COVERING was a clue to IDENTITY: ethnicity/class/marital status or RELIGIOUS CALLING
Upon entering a religious order female novices were required to shave their heads. They covered their heads with a veil or a woolen cap if they lived in a cold place.
A “nun” today
Unlike Judaism, Catholism allows women to be nuns
NEW TESTAMENT: 1 Corinthians 11:
11:5—And every woman who prays or prophecies with her head uncovered dishonors her head—it is just as though her head were shaved. [After their wedding Orthodox Jewish women do not show their hair in public]
11;7—A man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image of God; but the woman is the glory of man.
Roman Catholic and Protestant formal church wedding attire
Head covering: mantelets—lace or cloth, when praying
Women wear a “mantelletta” when visiting the Pope
21st church wedding veil—(a remnant of the past)
The bride wears a floral wreath in lieu of a veil at outdoor weddings
33:59
Prophet, enjoin your wives, your daughters and the wives of true believers to draw their veils close round them. That is more proper, so that THEY may be recognized and NOT BE MOLESTED.
In those days in Arabia, all women were wearing the same attire. Allah urging “true believer women” to draw their veils close round them was practical advice. True believer men would notice “in plain sight” true believer veiled women, and therefore would not molest them.
Religious identity
THE FLAG OF ISLAM
In a multicultural environment conspicuous religious headgear is an outward symbol of segregation which may set the stage for challenges.
The skullcap—kippah or yarmulke
Upon entering a religious order male novices were required to shave their beards as well as heads in “the apostolic tonsure”—the practice of cutting or shaving some or all of the hair on the scalp as a sign of religious devotion or humility.
If man has no hope then man ceases to belong to the future
The KUFI—Muslim prayer cap
THE POWER OF THE IMAGE
The Sikh deity is gender free and eternal
Believe in rebirth and karma
INDIA:
Circa 1500 CE—Guru NANAK (the lamp of divine FIRE) taught that true disaster on this planet was not an earthquake, volcano or tsunami but human ignorance.
Guru NANAK dressed unconventionally for a spiritual person: He designed his own wardrobe so as not to be identified with any particular faith: like a Muslim fakir or a Hindu saint.
The 10th guru, Guru Gobind Singh (born December 1666) ordered his followers to wear a turban and never cut their hair. He attempted to create a unique separate identity for ordinary Sikhs as until that time there was no way of distinguishing them from Hindus and Muslims.
HANS KUNG--1928-2021
Swiss Catholic priest, theologian and author
THERE WILL BE NO PEACE AMONG NATIONS
WITHOUT PEACE AMONG RELIGIONS
AND
THERE WILL BE NO PEACE AMONG RELIGIONS
WITHOUT DIALOGUE AMONG RELIGIONS
The disappearing religions of the Middle East:
the Mandaeans—Yazidis—Zoroastrians—Druze—
Samaritans—Copts—Kalasha
BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS
Man does not live on what he eats but on what he (his gut) digests:
ENERGY FOODS:
Raw starch vs cooked starch
Raw protein vs cooked protein
I have three peace lily plants in my living room:
We depend (symbiosis) on each other to live in harmony.
PLEASE PLANT A TREE
