Gobekli Tepe in Turkey, the oldest temple site on earth

Intricate details of vultures & scorpions from 11,000 years ago

20 temples built on a 22-acre site from 9600-8200 BC suggest that it may be gathering for religion that spawned "civilization" as we imagine it today, not the Ice Age passing and the domestication of plants and animals. Researcher Klaus Schmidt has been excavating the temple site for 17 years, and believes what he is uncovering is a whole new paradigm shift for understanding our human tendency to gather into groups. It may due to the religious spectacle that was created at Gobekli Tepe that brought hunters & gathers together in large groups. Some are saying that the temple site may be the Neolithic version of Disneyland. "Discovering that hunter-gathers had constructed Gobekli Tepe was like finding that someone had built a 747 in a basement with an X-acto knife." It was not the settling into groups due to domestication that spawned the need for religion to dictate civil harmony as previously conjectured. "Twenty years ago everyone believed civilization was driven by ecological forces," Schmidt says. "I think what we are learning is that civilization is a product of the human mind."

(Info Source: National Geographic June 2011 issue, pp 34-59, photo source red ice creations.com)

From a NYT article about conjoined twins

The average person tends to fall back on the Enlightenment notion of the self — one mind, with privacy of thought and sensory experience — as a key characteristic of identity. That very impermeability is part of what makes the concept of the mind so challenging to researchers studying how it works, the neuroscientist and philosopher Antonio Damasio says in his book, “Self Comes to Mind.” “The fact that no one sees the minds of others, conscious or not, is especially mysterious,” he writes. We may be capable of guessing what others think, “but we cannot observe their minds, and only we ourselves can observe ours, from the inside, and through a rather narrow window.”

This is the article. Makes one think about individuality. And the mind.

Charming Chico, CA

P and I had an overnight getaway to Chico. He had a radio appearance on their local public station, and a book store event at Lyon Books in the evening. We had an easy drive up, via Sacto and highway 99, and stayed at the beautifully restored Hotel Diamond - the first hotel in Chico from around 1904, that had closed due to fire in 1912, and not reopened again until 2005.

I talked a meter maid out of a parking ticket, everywhere we went people were kind and helpful. And it was a gorgeous day! We had a delicious Mexican dinner at Tres Hombres with two 100% blue agave tequila drinks each, to celebrate the wonderful day - and P's great talk - 40 people showed up, and listened enraptured. Amazing.

Today we had coffee in our room while listening to a little music, and paging through a History of Chico picture book. We saw a picture of "the big fish" and it became part of our day's pursuit. I took a 4.5 mile walk from the hotel and up into Lower Bidwell Park - it was a stunningly bright day, and met P back at the room to shower and pack. We picked up sandwiches to have a picnic by the creek back in Bidwell Park, after driving out highway 32 east looking for the fish.

We filled our gas tank with $3.99 gas! And on our way westward out highway 32 to connect to I-5, we found THE BIG FISH! A perfect day...

We're back home now, resting a bit. And I'm packing for my girl's getaway to Laguna Beach tomorrow bright and early!

Entertaining

The enormous cache of computer files taken fromOsama bin Laden’s compound contained a considerable quantity of pornographic videos, American officials said on Friday, adding a discordant note to the public image of the Islamist militant who long denounced the West for its lax sexual mores. -- New York Times

Life is so good, I don't have time to blog about it...

My life feels like the opposite of that cheesy Footprints poem, about god carrying you at the most difficult times of your life. For me, it's more that life has been so busy and exciting lately, I haven't the time to blog about it. Which in the big picture, is a good thing. (Or perhaps a justification, but I'll take a good life, either way).

Paul's event on April 29th was AMAZING! Wonderful, adoring fans, loads of friends we haven't seen in awhile, lots of book and art sales, and not a wrinkle or hiccup in any aspect of the plan or execution. The folks we hired to sell books & art, and pour the wine were professional and delightful, P's mom was a HUGE help, and overall the night was an even larger success than we could have possibly even imagined! And yet, no blog post about it. Until days later. Ahwell...

Last night P put up the most challenging performance of his career at the Monthly Rumpus, and killed it! Afterwards, we enjoyed roasted cauliflower, potato & gorgonzola hash, and prosciutto pizza, with a glass of Pinot at Baretta, followed by chocolate & amaretto gelato with a glass of 10-year Tawny port. We walked home around midnight... relaxed and happy after a job well done. Not to mention his radio appearance on KPFA's Cover to Cover yesterday afternoon.

AND... my having a wonderful walk & talk with the lovely and insightful Chez D yesterday morning, all along the top of the city, from Ft. Mason to the Warming Hut and back. Almost 4.5 miles on a beautifully warm and cloudless morning - an excellent way to start a day, and a week!

And then another 4 days...

I hate getting out of a good rhythm. I had been posting almost everyday, and now multiple days pass between posts. Ah well, gotta just get back up on that horse.

Whoops, a week has passed...

I had a good rhythm going for a few months, then we hit the critical juncture of THE BIG BOOK PARTY - and mom's arrival - and there went my daily blog...

The party was an AWESOME success, though... and worth, perhaps, a week off from the daily chronicle.

And Bin Laden was found and shot by the US military on Sunday, MayDay, May 1. I found out while talking go Gail about M's potential assignment in Afghanistan.

I've taken a few pics this week. Here's one of the view from Cavallo Point.