Ancient aliens or unfettered human ingenuity?

A series of TV programs aired recently on History's H2 channel called "Ancient Aliens." I listened as countless self-proclaimed alien experts pointed to all kinds of ancient artifacts that defy their idea of our ancestors' capabilities, and most concluded that they must therefore be the work of advanced extraterrestrial visitors. Entertaining thought it was, there was no doubt in my mind that the marvels they pointed to were the work of humans.

 

Contemplate, if you will, the laser-machined precision of the intricate block cuts of Puma Punku at 12,000 feet in the mountains of Bolivia, the Nazca lines stretching 50 miles across the top of a high plateau in Peru, 2,000-year-old writings describing Vimana flying machines in India, the monolithic statues on Easter Island in the South Pacific, the light bulb-looking Dendera wall carvings and Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt, Stonehenge in southern England, and the Antikythera Mechanism with its 29 finely tuned interlocking gears found in an ancient shipwreck off the coast of Crete. The list of mysterious marvels from antiquity is seemingly endless.

Not counting the effects of sleep deprivation, junk food and pharmaceuticals on our modern brains, the brains of our ancestors were probably little if any different than our own. We can never know of all the extraordinary...

Homeless people with mental illness and substance addiction are homeless by their own volition? Really?

I was so stunned by claims in the Daily Sentinel's editorial "Homelessness and Vagrancy" this morning that I had to write this post.

Here is the part of the editorial that so shocked me: "One group, we believe, are the true homeless. They are families and individuals who may have lost jobs, gone through home foreclosure or lost their homes by other means. They are actively trying to improve their lot in hopes they will soon leave the ranks of the homeless.

"The other group is largely homeless by their own volition. They reject the conventions of society — although they accept its services when it suits them. Many have addictions to alcohol or drugs, or suffer from mental illness, or both. We have chosen to refer to this second group as vagrants."

Really? Addiction is a choice? Mental illness is a choice? First of all, it is obvious that...

Collared lizard: Ancient secrets, dreaming and foresight

The colorful collared lizard or Crotaphytus collaris auriceps is a common sight in the Western Colorado landscape, and yet it excites us to see them.

The name auriceps comes from aurum (gold) and ceps, which means head. Our most common collared lizard auriceps has a golden-yellow head and vibrant blue-green body, with a long, round tail.

Our rocks and canyons are ideal habitat for collared lizards. They burrow under big rocks to sleep and lay their eggs, then venture out in search of insects (but they’ll settle for an occasional side salad). The lizards do stalk their prey, but they’ll adjust to whatever’s available at the time.

Most Native American lore associates the lizards with ancient secrets, dreaming, and foresight. Maybe that’s why an encounter with auriceps so often produces a sense of awe, surprise, and reflection.

As a child, I always thought of the collared lizard as larger, with long sweeping wings, offering sage advice. Blue dragons, I called them. Little blue dragons. From high in the sky to shadows of the red rock, they see and sense what’s been, what is, and what could be. Ah, the imagination of a little girl.

So the next time you’re out hiking in the canyons and rocks around the Valley (or in your yard if it has big rocks), watch for Western Slope auriceps and have your camera ready. (I’m usually so taken with delight when I see one that I wait too long. Yet sometimes, once they realize I’ve seen them, they’ll stop just long enough for a quick photo op.) Then, as you continue your hike, let your imagination wander as you reflect on the auriceps encounter. Ancient secrets, dreaming, and foresight. Not bad for a little lizard.

Technical Notes
Family: Iguanidae
Genus: Crotaphytus
Species: Crotaphytus collaris

This post is excerpted from a story I wrote in the July 2009 issue of Grand Valley Magazine. Because I've always had a soft spot for the collared lizard, I wanted it here on my blog.

Avalon Theatre is the ballpark of our cultural community

Colorado ranks fifth in the nation for concentration of creative talent. Only New York, California, Massachusetts and Vermont place higher, according to a State of Colorado’s Creative Economy report by the Alliance for Creative Advantage (based in South Carolina).

So significant are the creative enterprises that they comprise the fifth-largest employment sector in Colorado’s economy.

Our cultural amenities are increasingly attracting innovators, businesses and tourists — and they all bring dollars and jobs to our state’s cultural arts destinations. But Mesa County isn’t as high on that list as it could and should be. That’s despite our burgeoning wine country, nationally renowned Art on the Corner program and world-class outdoor adventure opportunities.

How do we engage, capitalize on and ride the Colorado creative wave?

The Grand Junction City Council’s recent decision to add $3 million to the Downtown Development Authority’s $3 million to fund a $14 million renovation of the Avalon Theatre is a bold move in that direction.

Harry Weiss, director of Grand Junction’s DDA, told me back in May that...

Semper fi, Grandpa -- and thanks for all the stories

Recently, I received the most extraordinary and unexpected gift. My mother and my uncle handed me an old book, the binding long gone, titled Columbia Standard Illustrated World Atlas. I was touched because they know I adore and collect interesting maps. But my delight at first seeing it paled in comparison to the emotions I felt when I opened the cover. Their full given names were handwritten on the first page in a script I recognized before my eyes moved to my grandpa’s signature with “1942” written next to it.

As I turned each page, careful not to tear the aged and delicate paper, I saw many place names underlined. “He underlined every place he’d been when he gave it to us,” my mom told me. “We were kids of course.”

China, Chosen (“formerly Korea” written in ink beside it), Cuba. The nations were listed alphabetically with brief overviews under each name: England, Finland, France, Hawaii, Japan, Mexico, Labrador, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Panama, Philippine Commonwealth, Puerto Rico, Sweden.

Grandpa didn’t spend time in these places as a tourist. He was a United States Marine, enlisting when he was 14 years old, lying about his age, convincing an elderly...

Creativity is crucial, not only for culture, but for our survival

Creativity represents not only beauty and freedom of expression, but innovation, progress, and survival of our very species.

Of all the related species of Homo — Homo floresiensis, habilis, heidelbergensis, denisovans, neanderthalensis, sapiens — only we sapiens remain. The Neanderthals had bigger brains, but they didn’t progress the way we did.

"The Neanderthals devised neither visual art nor personal ornamentation. Oddly, throughout this static history, they had a larger brain than sapiens,” wrote biologist Edward O. Wilson in his book The Social Conquest of Earth. He writes that Neanderthal tools remained essentially unchanged for thousands and thousands of years despite the extreme challenges and opportunities presented in their environments, while sapiens, on the other hand, were highly creative.

The differences between our two species are clear, but scientists don’t know if the lack of Neanderthal creativity is the result of something missing in their DNA or a cultural agreement not to change anything. Maybe their larger brains remembered all too clearly the disasters of taming fire and determining which berries were poison. Or maybe it was the other way around. Maybe our sapiens brains are given to longer memories.

“A group with members who could read intentions and cooperate among themselves while predicting the actions of competing groups would have an enormous advantage,” Wilson wrote, “... the crossing over of a threshold level of cognitive ability that endowed Homo sapiens with a dramatically high capacity for culture.”

We are an innovative, culturally rich, and complex species. We instinctively understand the importance of creativity when it comes to our very survival. Creativity is necessary for innovation. But in some people living today geneticists have found small traces of Neanderthal DNA. Maybe they’re the ones who don’t understand the importance of the creative spirit. Maybe not. No matter.

Here’s to all the Homo sapiens who recognize, support, and champion the creative and cultural arts in our communities, nation, and around the world.

This post is excerpted from my weekly column in The Daily Sentinel as published in the Sunday, May 13, 2012, edition of the newspaper.

This is not the 1950s, so can we move on already?

I wasn’t alive in the 1950s, but recent hot news items make a case that we’re either clinging to that decade or drowning in its detritus — no matter how many cute electronic gadgets lie within our reach.

I’m sure it was all fine and good then. Witness all the wholesome American goodness on display in Father Knows Best, Ozzie and Harriet, and Leave it to Beaver. But isn’t it time to move on at least to the next decade already? I’m still looking forward to all that peace and harmony my teenage babysitters crooned about in the 1960s; you know, when peeeeeace will gui-ide the-uh plannet and lo-ove will steer the stars.

Because peace and harmony was the message that seemed to permeate and form my impressionable years, I was pretty convinced...

Those frivolous nonessential arts

Ever wonder why the arts are the first to see their funding cut during unstable times? Ever wonder where the idea that arts are “nonessential services” comes from? I used to wonder that too.

The movie The Sound of Music had a profound effect on me as a child. I was too young certainly to understand its climate of politics and war and all that (I was only five or six), but what did take hold of me was the undeniable power of music as a survival tool. For all their...

Savoring flavor

I learned years ago from an old winemaker that there is no more flavor in a big bite than in a small one. In fact, there is far more flavor in a small bite than in a big one. The pinch of spice thoughtfully added by the cook is completely missed when shoved hungrily past the taste buds, swallowed nearly whole, a wasted flavor nuance. Such a pity too.

There is so much more to savor when considering all that goes into the food that sustains us: The farmer who senses the land and the weather in a way that is part of who he is; an attentive guardian who tends his wheat fields. The hands that know...

Uh-oh, it really is a man's world!

If the state of world affairs seems a little heavy on the testosterone, it’s not just a figment of our imaginations.

According to a United Nations Statistics Division report, there are 57 million more men than women in the world today. And most of that ratio imbalance is in the under-50 age groups. Women, now, still outnumber men in the over-70 age group, although less than they used to.

I could just imagine all those “extra” young men pairing with the “extra” older women. In a spunky mood, I saw the statistics as amusing.

But wait a minute. Nature doesn’t work that way. How could...

Independence: It's all in the dirt.

Why aren’t fundamental life skills a standard part of secondary school education — tools young people need to ensure their independence as adults? If they can feed, clothe and provide shelter for themselves and their families, they’ll be prepared to weather almost any future storm, both literally and metaphorically.

Why are initiatives that teach those skills relegated to extracurricular, after-hours programs led by parent volunteers instead of being standard for all students? Let’s face it: Most students don’t have the means to participate in our amazing 4-H programs and other similar organizations.

While I was organizing my notes for this column (which was supposed to focus on hydraulic fracturing), my husband popped into my office and suggested that this weekend might be a good time to get our vegetable seeds started in indoor containers. I agreed and then tried to shift my attention back to the technical documents on my desk. But I couldn’t shake off the question of why we don’t teach basic food gardening in our schools.

Western Colorado is a rich and robust agricultural area. Shoot, even I managed to coax a few yummy veggies from the soil last year. I turned to Google for a quick search and then picked up the phone...

Despite their purchasing practices, the poor have many innovative ideas

The latest Mendelsohn Affluent report based on the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Expenditure Survey was released on March 1. The report analyzes the “role of Affluents as the spending engine that drives today’s consumer economy.” This is good news.

The 58.6 million adults with annual household incomes of $100,000+ have nearly 60 percent of total household income and 70 percent of all privately held wealth — and they are spending their money. They account for nearly half of consumer spending in 38 categories and about a third in 112 categories from airline travel and hotels to second homes and remodeling to jewelry, online gaming and charitable donations.

In most categories, they are outspending the other 254.4 million Americans by a considerable margin, with the intriguing exception of...