Roamin' Ruby in da house (err driveway)

[Qxxx]

Another comment, for what it's worth. I came to Gilgamesh via a circuitous path. I did some study of lost gospels in the local university library back in the 1990s, but had never heard of Sumer. But being a reader of scifi, I came across Snow Crash, which had a lot of stories that led me to look seriously at Sumerian history. The book has also had a lot of influence on computer culture that IT people can probably appreciate, viruses, virtual cyberworlds, high tech gadgets, speaking in tonques (like disparate computer language denominations).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_Crash

 

[SheketEchad]

It figures you've read Gilgamesh, . It seems to have had much more of an impact on my perspectives. There are several versions of Gilgamesh. Some are very abstracted into simple story form, and others like Gardner have literal translations of the original clay tablets dug up in the old archeological sites. Scholarship. One can even learn how "transliterate" Sumerian from Gardner's book if so inclined.

Of all the Sumerian/Mesopotamian gods, Enki/Ea is the most interesting, I think. Try transliterating "Ea".

Ah, I was wondering where you were going with Gilgamesh after all the other books discussed, lol.  Yes, I am aware of the scholarly discussions regarding the name given to Moshe, Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh and its linkage with Ea.  Is this what changed your perspective so much?

I wanted to be an archaeologist when I was a kid

 

[SheketEchad]

Another comment, for what it's worth. I came to Gilgamesh via a circuitous path. I did some study of lost gospels in the local university library back in the 1990s, but had never heard of Sumer. But being a reader of scifi, I came across Snow Crash, which had a lot of stories that led me to look seriously at Sumerian history. The book has also had a lot of influence on computer culture that IT people can probably appreciate, viruses, virtual cyberworlds, high tech gadgets, speaking in tonques (like disparate computer language denominations).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_Crash

Now THAT is an interesting premise for a sci-fi book.  I might need to read that one.  Oy.  I'll have to buy a trailer to haul around all of these new book introductions Q!

 

[Qxxx]

Ah, I was wondering where you were going with Gilgamesh after all the other books discussed, lol.  Yes, I am aware of the scholarly discussions regarding the name given to Moshe, Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh and its linkage with Ea.  Is this what changed your perspective so much?

I kind of caught the Ea, Yahveh, Jehova (yea-hoe-vah), Hallalu-YAH connections afterwards, especially on reading the specific qualities of Enki/Ea. Some years ago, I got to talking to a knowledgeable professor in a coffehouse near the university and brought up the subject. He also mentioned Marduk, who was actually the son of Ea, and who was fashioned as having the combined qualities of the other major Sumerian pantheon and was widely worshipped for a long time. Almost incipient monotheism. I've kind of wondered whether some of those hebrew forms might have meant son-of-Ea. At any rate, it's too much to think about for my puppy dog brain.

"changed perspective": the main thing with Gilgamesh is almost literally some of the same stories as in the OT. Enkidu, Utnapishtim, Dilmun the faraway land to the east. Too coincidental.

After your comments, I begin to think you could probably have once recited Kiplings poem verbatim ... and in Hebrew, lol.

 

[SheketEchad]

LOL, trust me, I'm not all that and a bag o'chips But thank you for the compliment.

I just have a broad and eclectic interest in knowledge gathering, having grown up in a traumatic and chaotic household with limited social activities where books were my only refuge and method of escape. I'm also an intellectual person in a family of entertainers. I'm finally almost over the nearly OCD response to wanting to learn about something, and can let it go. I could (can?) be rather annoying in that vein, and lost sleep over days trying to get to the bottom of something in the past. But being in nature relieves my brain of that incessant search and quest activity and I am much calmer these days. Maybe because I've finally realized I will never, ever know everything I wish to know and discuss.

Last bits of packing and prepping before down the road I go! I'll check in on the log once I'm out there a wanderin'.

Carpe diem!

 

[SheketEchad]

<snip>
"changed perspective": the main thing with Gilgamesh is almost literally some of the same stories as in the OT. Enkidu, Utnapishtim, Dilmun the faraway land to the east. Too coincidental.

<snip>

I am disinclined to discuss either politics or religion in a public, nay, even private forums as a norm.  But I will say this long thing: 

When people ask me why I have faith, I tell them science. This usually throws them as they are perceived as matter and antimatter. That's because, in my opinion, one either doesn't understand faith or science.

I suggest to them they study a wild beehive, stand in a meadow, listen to a forest, and then relate how such symbiotic relationships occurred by random chance.  I invite them to read Hawking, Einstein, Tesla, Pasteur, Aristotle, Archimedes, Pliny and others. Great minds all - but they only named the things that already existed. The human mind can only explain the framework of the universe, in starts and stumbles. But these things are already there - we don't create them, we simply attempt to define them mathematically or otherwise so that we can label them. And the science reveals their perfection and beauty in astounding detail.

Faith is the voluntary submission of will; science is the investigation of phenomena.

A real scientist, with or without faith, will give you the true odds of this tiny planet  with its placement in the surrounding universe supporting it's assigned lifeforms based on random chance, evolution, wildly long timelines and all included.

There have been other advanced civilizations before ours.  It is my personal theory that our hubris combined with the law of unintended consequences, seals our fate time and time again. And we begin again from rubble...

I never forget the serpent's whisper...
"And you will be like God, knowing good and evil..."

Unfortunately, we often lack the accompanying wisdom to discern which is which until it is too late, and another reset is upon us.

YMMV.

 

[Qxxx]

"There have been other advanced civilizations before ours.  It is my personal theory that our hubris combined with the law of unintended consequences, seals our fate time and time again. And we begin again from rubble...".

Shades of Great Ozymandias, king of kings. Your quote reminds me of something Dr Who said: "Alien technology plus human stupidity, trust me, it's unbeatable". As a side note: they are discovering great cities underwater, especially offshore in western India, that were submerged when sea levels rose by 300' or so after the last ice age.

Sorry, I didn't really wish to get into the area of "belief". I was trying to put things into "historical" perspective, from a comparative scholarship viewpoint. But I guess these things are too interdigitated to be taken separately. I'm too much one-sided anymore. Grumpy old men.

In regards actual "changed perspective", that occurred back when I was in my early 20s, so several decades before I discovered Gilgamesh, and it just occurred naturally, having more to do with 1900 years of historical events "after" 100 AD. I felt like G rounded out my historical education. So all purely academic.
-------------

So, best to get back to talking about your travels. Hope things go well with the van. Something to keep in mind, I think 95% of people on this forum actually live in S&B and are part-timers like me. If you live in a city, then rents and real estate are very expensive, but in the smaller places they're a lot cheaper. 

What I actually did on retiring was to travel around for about 3 years in my SUV (before the van days), and "rented" apartments in several different cities for 6 months and more. Then I settled where I am now, because I liked the place. Now with the van, I am also traveling about 1/3 of the time.

"Unfortunately, we often lack the accompanying wisdom to discern which is which until it is too late, and another reset is upon us".

It's a process, not a final decision. Choices are always made on the basis of incomplete data - even for those old civilizations what self-destructed. Becoming a full-timer is not a 1-way street. It's all about personal choices, and what feels good as we go down the road.

 

[SheketEchad]

I'm alive!!  My internet connection stinks via my corporate connection, so trying to do this by phone on this tiny ass screen.  That combined with my aging eyes is... Frustrating!!

Suffered another break down in Texas. Gotta say Kentucky is far friendlier in regards to people stopping.  Ended up losing more than a day but found helpful and reasonable diesel mechanic in a Loves that got me up and out in under thirty minutes and less than 150.00 in parts and labor.  All good, if unexpected.  Never even knew I had a crankshaft position sensor, but its failure will stop the van dead in the water, yay. 

A shout out to Terry the trucker who connected me with the onsite traveling mechanic Edgar.  I had another mechanic that stopped, but he had to go to work and wouldn't be back for several more hours into the night. But Jesus earned a place in my heart for being the only person who stopped in over four hours!!  Then I was befriended by a drunk with a dog on a bicycle, lol. He stayed at roadside with me until the tow truck arrived. His dog Blue was a sweetie and made the time pass fairly quickly. You never know who you're going to meet on the road?

I also met up with Ruth and Jorge in El Paso as they were heading out to Jamie's van build, and got to meet Max and Silas, their awesome fur babies. Beautiful set up in their Transit van. Small world, van dwellers abound!

New Mexico and Arizona are the bomb.  It's just gorgeous out here.  May end up staying longer than previously planned.  I don't know how to post photos from my phone yet, so may have to wait until the laptop rights itself. Feel in love with Patagonia, fun for art lovers.  Bisbee is cool, too, but I liked the vibe in Patagonia better.

I have a few more days to work before I head out into the boondocking world in the mountains.  I can't wait ?

It's rained twice here, well, if drizzles count, lol.  The lightning out here is fiercely beautiful - nothing to block the race to the ground.

More later, I hope!