Are we alone?

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You meet many different people in your life these days.

Unlike days past (long ago and far away) when a person might live his whole life in the same town or village and possibly never travel outside a short distance (compared to how we measure distance today with automobiles and airplanes and rocket ships into outerspace and even once upon a time to the moon) from where he or she was born. Today we can in a few hours travel to the opposite side of this ol' world

The furtherest I've ever traveled was 13 time zones away, which is about half way around the world or a little better away from Georgia. But in terms of seeing much of this planet, I can't really say that I've seen much. About 37 of the United States, a couple of territories, 7 foreign countries. And really most of them I can only say that our plane landed there or we drove thru them on the way to somewhere else. So I really haven't seen much. To be sure we can turn on the Travel Network on TV or read about places and learn a great deal that once was the realm of only the rich who could afford to travel or the military who'll send you where they want you, but knowing a place or understanding it requires a little more I think.

There is something within most people, I think, which yearns to see and experience different places or things. We can admire the view from a roadside pull off high in the mountains where we can see for 50 miles or more, but I think in our deepest subconcious parts of our brains the explorer in all of us wishes we could experience all of what is within our view. And more if that is possible. That's why I have a lot of respect for researchers, scientists and deep thinkers of what ever persuasion.
They are reaching out for answers to question we may not even have thought of yet.

Several years ago I was in a small trading post in a little NE Ga town. They sold used furniture and appliances and STUFF.. They would also buy or pawn items from people. They had accumulated a good bit of old jewelry of various description and had decided to get rid of things they hadn't been able to sell. I sorted thru all their items and picked out the genuine gold from all the costume jewelry. Quite a nice little buy I thought. One of the items kinda caught my eye and after I got home I gave it a closer look.

It was an apparently hand crafted piece of 18 kt gold with a curiously crafted design on it which resembled a central or South American ancient carving. Anything like that gets my attention since supposedly my mother was 1/8 Cherokee Indian, so I feel a certain amount of kinship towards Native American cultures where ever they were.

I took the piece to my friend Renato, a Peruvian Lawyer who immigrated to this country many years ago and because his legal training was in that country could not practice as a lawyer since he didn't complete his JD in this country. He works as a legal aid to the hispanic community assisting with taxes, passports and other things they need help with.

A most interesting person. Highly intelligent, the author of 2 books now. A speaker on the ancient architecture of South America and very interested in many of the unexplained mysteries of that region and the world. I met him at church and our friendship seemed to have that bond of long knowing of each other.

He told me that the design was one of the smaller winged gods engraved on the Sun Gate of the Tiwanakuan culture high in the Bolivian Andes mountains at about 12500 ft above sea level.

This is a picture of my piece:



Click through some of the links to the Sun Gate or related sights and you'll get a better idea of the image shown.

An interesting item is that some of the cut stones making up Machu Piccu is that they weigh 400 tons or better. The largest stones in any of the pyramids of Egypt weigh about 300 tons and they're at close to sea level. These are at an altitude of two and a third miles in some of the steepest parts of the world. How did ancient workers get them there???

My friend has a website at http://www.renatolongato.com

I think you might find some things to consider and maybe even ponder there. I might try to get together a group to have him speak to sometime. I learn new things every time I visit with him.

Sitting in the Kudza picking at the lint in my navel. Never know what will turn up.