added latest post and updates to calendar and scratch

3 files changed, 40 insertions, 1 deletions

diff --git a/calendar.txt b/calendar.txt
index cbb0d39..dfe8b0a 100644
--- a/calendar.txt
+++ b/calendar.txt
@@ -12,7 +12,6 @@
         - what is the relationship of other literatures to nature.
 
 ## JRNL
-    - Sounds of mexico [~/writing/luxagraf/sounds-of-mexico.txt]
     - Blessing of the seeds Candelaria [candelaria.txt]
     - On not traveling
     - Eggs in the jardin
@@ -51,3 +50,6 @@
 
 
 
+
+# Completed
+Sounds of mexico 2019-03-12
diff --git a/published/2019-02-04_candlelaria-in-san-miguel.txt b/published/2019-02-04_candlelaria-in-san-miguel.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5f1094f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/published/2019-02-04_candlelaria-in-san-miguel.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+Someone once quipped that cultures only need a word for "religion" when they no longer have one. Aside from our brief encounters with indigenous tribes, no other people I've lived among have less need for the word religion than Mexicans. Here there is life, and it is always a celebration. 
+
+It feels the opposite of where we come from. You want to bring it back with you when you leave, but I don't think that's possible. All you ever get to take with you are memories.
+
+<img src="images/2019/2019-03-01_200252_around-sma.jpg" id="image-1869" class="picwide" />
+
+Halfway between winter solstice and spring equinox lies a day that has long been celebrated in various forms as the "return of the light". Around the British Isles it's known as Imbolic. Farther south it fell close enough to forty days after Christmas that it merged with existing pagan traditions and become Candlemas.
+
+Candelaria, as it's called around here, is not celebrated in the States anymore, but in San Miguel it's going strong. Like most things here it's half Catholic, half indigenous and falls such that it marks roughly the beginning of spring. To celebrate there's an indigenous ceremony at the park, with a blessing of the seeds to future harvests, and a huge plant sale.
+
+The park is transformed into an outdoor arboretum. Plant vendors line the walkways and little kids push wagon loads of plants through the park to waiting cars on the street. And of course there's food. Any time three or more people gather in Mexico, someone materializes bearing food. 
+
+<img src="images/2019/2019-01-31_151336_candelaria.jpg" id="image-1871" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2019/2019-01-31_151940_candelaria.jpg" id="image-1872" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2019/2019-01-31_153224_candelaria.jpg" id="image-1873" class="picwide" />
+
+We're not great with plants. We took the kids to a nursery to get some plants for the pots we gave them for Christmas and by Candlelaria they were already dead. We bought a few more at the plant sale, but um, cough, one of those is already mostly dead as I write this. Not sure what's wrong with us, perhaps we're just not plant people. Animals seem drawn to us though, so at least there's that.
+
+<img src="images/2019/2019-02-04_082228_umaran-courtyard.jpg" id="image-1877" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2019/2019-01-31_143731_umaran-courtyard.jpg" id="image-1876" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2019/2019-01-31_143638_umaran-courtyard.jpg" id="image-1875" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2019/2019-01-25_164127_umaran-courtyard.jpg" id="image-1874" class="picwide caption" />
+
+It is warming up here. Perhaps our plants will do better going forward. I doubt it though. All you ever get to take is your memory. Like this memory, which has an explanation, but which I like better without it.
+
+<img src="images/2019/IMG_142415459.jpg" id="image-1878" class="picfull" />
+
diff --git a/scratch.txt b/scratch.txt
index 3f710da..d344076 100644
--- a/scratch.txt
+++ b/scratch.txt
@@ -1,7 +1,17 @@
+I don't want you to be like me. I want you to figure out who you are, how to think your own thoughts and maybe, if you're lucky, figure out what you're supposed to be doing. One of the easiest ways to get the kind of perspective you need to figure these things out is to travel, particularly outside your own  culture
 
 
 All of life is limits, right now we are up against some hard limits
 
+## Failure of materialism
+
+I have become increasingly dissastified with the scientific materialist view of the world. I don't disagree with it, I just don't think it's the whole story. Which is to say that science provides a wonderful toolkit for exploring one of the worlds we live in, but it's a terrible toolkit for exploring the other worlds we live in. Now you could say, but we don't live in other worlds. But you're wrong. Imagine for a moment your favorite place, the warm sand of a beach, the wind through the pines on a ridge of mountains, the still heat of an afternoon in the desert, what have you. See it clearly in your mind. Hear it, the waves crashing the shore, the wind in the pines, the crunch of shoes as you walk through the gravel of the desert. Smell the salt, the pines, the sagebrush. Make it real in your mind.
+
+What world is that? It's not the world scientific materialism describes. Add a unicorn to your favorite place. See, easy. Easy because it's a different world. It's the world of imagination. There are other worlds too. Depending on which tradition of thought you find best describes your experience there might be three worlds, or five, for ten. The model that's always made the most sense to me happens to have five world, but it's just a model. 
+
+Borges said the map is not the territory, and, while that's true, it should bear some scaled down resemblance to the territory otherwise it's not going to make a very helpful guide to the territory.
+
+
 
 ## On Writing