In a bit John will be by to pick up the Hyacinth with my card of Davis Bay B.C. for his mother, where he’ll stop by on his way to the meditation retreat. I bought my own Hyacinth of the same colour. Buying a Hyacinth was something I’d always wanted to do, but never did. You have to be in season with such wishes!
Yesterday’s entry was very short at three lines, but it shows that I was prepared - be it late - to make one such. So, here and now today, I’ll try again to say some thing relating to my Maya talk of last Sunday. These comments will be under both the diary and the writings headings.
[I just clipped my finger nails, as their length was bothering me in the typing and that feels much better after this personal hygienic event.]
Last Sunday’s Maya presentation went well as far as I am concerned, but the reception of it was a bit muted. I think that this came from my charge in the end about the guidance that I gleaned from the Maya’s fate and survival; see also below.
The attendance included Garda and Hanna, our trusted volunteers, Ed, my friend Jack - but all are my friends too - Larry, Leila and Elisabeth. I had brought chocolates for sixteen people and judging by that, we had at least thirteen persons in attendance! Lindt chocolates are just too good to be left alone!
I had brought chocolates for sixteen people and judging by that, we had at least thirteen persons in attendance!
I had brought the chocolates to honour the Maya, who cultivated the Cacao shrub, which grows its fruit right off its stems. It are the seed of this fruit that are the source of the ’ambrosia divina’! Mister Van Houten (1850?) discovered how to turn the seeds into a powder making it an affordable and popular consumer item.
The one glitch in my presentation was that Hermans tape recorder reached its tape end, ten minutes before my talk’s end! Fortunately, I always record my talks on my digital RCA recorder, which had lots of memory left on it. I will now have to transfer the last ten minutes to the tape’s other side.
After completing my other talks, I always get on with my affairs, but this time my study and talk on the Maya are keeping me occupied mentally. The subject has [John just stopped by, 9:44am] taken a hold of me in a way my other presentation subjects never did. This is in part due to the new and unfamiliar subject matter and because it involves the living heirs of civilization, which though much diminished is still much alive today.
It is this aspect that makes it different from talking about the origins of the Coptic or Islam, whose fate was less tragic, much different, has been known and acknowledged for a long time. That acknowledgement for the present Maya is still a daily struggle against people who want to deny them the truth and value this ancient heritage that is now emerging.