After my morning writing yesterday, I had lunch, a snooze and then a walk to get my hair cut. The weather was warm, making me take off my hat, scarf and almost my jacket. This morning I saw some geese flying over going north, not south!
Yesterday’s daily entry writings part was quite a challenge, but it got completed in the evening and posted by 11-pm. No coffees with John this week he told me yesterday; busy, busy. Later this morn a rare coffee with Ron, which should be fun since we have not met since last spring. I have a neat picture for him, showing the distribution of dark matter in an unusual case.
Therefore I am going with ‘Mani’s Lost religion’, which lasted from ca 300AD to ca 1 000AD, …
Today or tomorrow I have to decide on the wording for my June talk write up. The subject is Manichaeism, but that is not an attractive word to have in a title, because most people do not know what it means. Therefore I am going with ‘Mani’s Lost religion’, which lasted from ca 300AD to ca 1 000AD, but still shows remnants such as the Yazidi in Syria.
But, before I get too involved with that subject, I first have to concentrate on my presentation on the Maya three weeks from now. I studied my Maya source again last night and am now down to ‘the here and there’ as I call the various scattered topics that need a mention. For example there is the ‘ball game’, which is still a mystery, while on the other hand the hieroglyphs, which have been partially deciphered.
What I do not have is a narrative to hold it together, but I do have a theme, which is that the Maya are an example of loosing one’s civilization but preserving, adapting and reformulating one’s identity and culture, yet not loosing it.
Comparing the Maya with the Manicheans, I come to the conclusion that the Maya survived with a functioning cultural identity, whereas Manichaeism has disappeared. I would ascribe that to the fact that Mani tried for a universal religion, which did not have a strong identity it seems. I’ll have to wait until I know a bit more.