Beth's Ponderings
I have a quirk - and
I’m sure it’s not my only one - I cannot see cobwebs, especially when they are
indoors. No matter how many times they
are pointed out to me, or how many times I unknowingly walk through one, I
simply cannot see them.
But, just because a
quirk with my eyes doesn’t let me see the cobwebs, doesn’t mean they aren’t
really there.
Not long ago I read
a book about how our whole concept of our history has been overturned because
early archaeologists and anthropologists “didn’t see” what was right in front
them. They were so sure that the “evidence”
they uncovered pointed in a certain direction that they did everything they
could - short of standing on their heads - to make it fit into their concept of
what they “thought” our history “should” be.
And, they were wrong.
We’ve been taught
in schools (in a nutshell) that our Neolithic ancestors from approximately 12,000
years ago were ignorant, brutal barbarians who had no culture, and yet somehow
managed to figure out how to farm, despite constantly fighting and killing each
other.
What the
archaeological evidence actually shows is that our Neolithic ancestors were
very peaceful cooperative people who were socially, culturally, and
artistically MORE advanced than we are today, even with all of our technological
advances.
Due to massive
earthquakes, and other resulting natural disasters, approximately 5,000 years
ago, that way of life was dramatically changed and, for all intents and
purposes, lost. We only get the occasional glimpse of it in some ancient myth
or writing, yet we know it exists because we are trying to return to it every
time we try to bring more peace and more beauty to our lives. It was also at that same time period that the
evidence of weapons of war and mass killings first appear.
While I can’t see
cobwebs normally, I CAN see them when the sunlight glints of water droplets on
the strands of the web. It is possible
for us all to see what we need to see in our lives, if the conditions are
right, and we don’t prejudge what we think our reality should be.
Beth
Read the complete issue of The Chautauqua here: https://sites.google.com/site/thechautauqua26/home/April%2019%2C%202019%20Chautauqua.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1
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