We All Have Tribal Roots

If you go back in history, we all come from some sort of nomadic group that dared to migrate and populate the various parts of the world. If you look around the world, there are still obvious tribal influences in places like the Middle East, Africa, India, and South America. But being part of a tribe is not necessarily what most people envision when then think about tribes. They picture nomads on camels, families living off of the land living in huts, or performing rituals with spears and shields. The reality is that there are tribes all around the world. The definition of a tribe is a social division in a traditional society consisting of families or communities linked by social, economic, religious, or blood ties, with a common culture and dialect, typically having a recognized leader. There are tribal divisions in Europe, Asia, and the United States. We just think of them as regional differences, such as Sicily versus the people from Tuscany, but ultimately these cultural and even linguistic differences help define the people who live there. Not true in the melting pot that is the United States some might say, then visit Louisiana or Texas and then consider the definition of a tribe. Lets celebrate our differences instead of hoping for a homogenized world. This week’s Daily Post Photo Challenge is Transient (drifters and nomads). Here are some photos of a couple of tourist activities that celebrate our nomadic past.

Camels on the Beach in Morocco
Horses in Mexico
More Camels
Ready for a Ride

Aim for Your Goals

If you don’t set any goals for yourself, how can you know if you are making progress to whatever you deem as success? Goals help you remain focused and moving towards your desired target. It is important to revisit and adjust your goals throughout the year so that you can be sure that they remain realistic and achievable. Sometimes something happens that will cause you to change your goals as life sometimes takes you in different directions. We set one goal for ourselves after spending time in Europe and that was to visit more of Central and South America. With that in mind, we booked our trip to visit Ecuador in September. We are also planning on seeing more of our own state as well as nearby states, assuming that our work schedules cooperate. This week’s Daily Post Photo Challenge is Focus, so while we ponder what we’re focused on, here are some close-up photos that focus on various flowers.

Flower in Our Backyard
Beautiful Wildflower
Flower in Denver’s Civic Center Park
Mushroom Caps

Making Sense of a Complex World

Since the beginning of mankind, we have all struggled to make sense of the world around us. It is in our human nature to try and make order out of the chaos that is our world. It is as true today as it was during the dawn of time, although the source of the chaos might be different. In the beginning, it was the struggle to make sense of the natural world, such as the rotation of the heavens and the changing of the seasons. Today’s world is as complex and seemingly uncontrollable as at any time during our history, but that doesn’t stop our rational minds from trying to preserve a sense of normalcy in our daily lives. This week’s Daily Post Photo Challenge is about Order. From the ancient Pueblo people who created Mesa Verde here in western United States, to the ancestors of the Incas in South America, to the middle ages of Europe, there are plenty of examples of people trying to make sense of and create order out of our complex and ever changing world.

Ancient Pueblo Petroglyph
Kiva with Hole at the Center

The ancient Pueblo people built kivas and painted stories of their creation as they believed that they came from the center of the earth. They held rituals and celebrated around a ceremonial hole in the kiva that symbolized their access to the world of their ancestors.

The Astronomical Clock
Complex Movements

In the middle ages, we were able to create more sophisticated devices to measure time and understand the movements of the heavens. The astronomical clock in Prague is an excellent example of man trying to gain control and predictability over their natural world.

Standing on an Astronomical Observatory in Incallajta
Calendar at Tiwanaku

Long before there were clocks and timepieces, the ancient people of South America had been observing the movements of the starts and had created calendars that predicted the seasons and the days of the year.