Background Check…WAY Back

Though I have not written in a while, it is but the slightest blink of an eye compared to the 30,000 years that have passed since the paintings in the Chauvet cave in southern France were made. I saw them in the new Werner Herzog movie “Cave of Forgotten Dreams” yesterday as part of a small observance of another trip around the sun. It is amazing to see and consider the creations by our long-off elders in 3D; it’s really one of the best uses of 3D projection I’ve ever seen. There is still that voice in the back of my mind that harks from my early days when I wanted to be an archaeologist and teach swimming lessons when I grew up. If I were working right now, I would also fork over the bucks to the National Geographic Genographic Project to see what my own DNA could reveal about where all my constituent ancestors hailed from across the globe.

In part due to reflection upon the movie and my own past and current circumstances, particularly pertaining to employment, it really makes the stress fall off contemplating how many folks have lived their lives since the painters of Chauvet. It certainly demonstrates how finding something to do that you love is what is really important. Most things fade and disappear with enough time, so make the most of it while your time lasts. If that means changing paths somewhere along the way, then so be it. One archaeologist researching there in France said he’d originally worked in a circus, so there you go!

Apropos to both the solar voyage observance and investigation into the past, this also marked the thirtieth year since “Raiders of the Lost Ark” was first released. How many times have I watched that cinematic masterpiece?

The summer here is well underway. The temperatures and winds have been evident, and humidity has tagged along like usual. Thistle hunts out in the pastures have been held by some, though some properties (unfortunately upwind of ours) appear to have been neglected as usual. The one major thing lacking here thus far is the sound of cicadas, which is THE sound of summer, as far as I’m concerned.

Marion: You're not the man I knew ten years ago.
Indiana: It's not the years, honey, it's the mileage.
~Raiders of the Lost Ark