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There is a school of thought that posits that Adam - of Genesis fame - was not actually the first man, but rather the first prophet in the line of prophets that spawned the Abrahamic faiths. The crux of this is that there was nothing good nor evil prior to the teachings of the creator having reached us - hence like the ravening wolf or the ferocious lion, there was nothing intrinsically wrong in anything we did since it was only natural. Once the concept was introduced that there was a purpose-driven, life-loving God, however, good and evil could be finally identified as those behaviors which departed from that purpose and interfered with that life. Hence the tale of Cain and Abel and most everything else in the Torah.
Now I am not here to argue this idea today. I am more interested in the location. Adam is said to have appeared in the garden of Eden, and of all the locales that have been proposed as the "real" Eden, I have been most convinced by the suggestion of David Rohl that it might have been Tabriz. I think it was the documentary, In Search of Eden - which can be found on You Tube that mostly convinced me. I may well be mistaken, however, so do your own research.
What intrigues me about this location is that some six thousand years later, around 1844, another man appeared in Iran claiming to be next in the Adamic line of prophets. Ignoring every gory detail about this, I will merely note that the Islamic clergy of Iran had this man executed on July 9, 1850 in what was then downtown Tabriz.
In a sense, then, what began with Adam in Eden came full circle and was brought to a close in the same location. Curious.
So, if Iran was in fact the host to the original garden of Eden, then it would follow that some of the oldest cultural elements of civilization may have sprung from that region, and one might expect that some of the most mature concepts regarding life the universe and everything have been and continue to be evolving there.
Sadly, Iran is mostly being demonized these days - not without good reason, mind you - to the citizens of the USA, so it is a knee-jerk reaction of many in the West to eschew everything associated with Iran. In fact, most of the evils that issue out of that country seem to be caused by a minority of fanatics who have a stranglehold on governance and their oppressions are evident and well documented. To some extent, the people of that country are rising up against that oppression, so there may well be an end one day to that circumstance.
All of this is a long way around to recommending that every "educated" American should be familiar with the story of Layla and Majnun - perhaps the original "Romeo and Juliette". It is a tale familiar to most every Iranian, one that inspired Eric Clapton in composing perhaps his most famous tune. Maybe one day, Hollywood will grace us with a worthy film depiction of it.
Likewise, those who would account themselves as culturally informed might wish to peruse some of the poetry of Rumi:
BeyondOut beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field.
I'll meet you there.When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.Ideas,
language,
even the phrase "each other"
doesn't make any sense.
and Hafez:
Will Beat You UpJealousy
And most all of your sufferings
Are from believing
You know better than God.
Of course,
Such a special brand of arrogance as that
Always proves disastrous,
And will rip the seams
In your caravan tent,
Then cordially invite in many species
Of mean biting flies and
Strange thoughts-
That will
Beat you
Up.
So just some ideas on how to fill your new year, or whatever.
Oh yeah, and if any of your neighbors are Iranian refugees, consider going out of your way to talk with them. For the record, I am not Iranian, but one of my neighbors is.
--
"So make the best of the situation before I finally go insane", -Derek and the Dominos, Layla
(Score: 1) by nostyle on Friday January 27, @06:06PM (7 children)
My brother dropped me an email to say I simply _had_ to watch the you tube by Rick Beato, "Why Did Steely Dan Change Their Sound?" [youtube.com]
--
So I did.
--
If you are into music, it is a great overview of why Steely Dan is great. Warning: If you are a rank amateur like me, this video may bruise your ego,
--
-Steely Dan, Any Major Dude Will Tell You
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 27, @06:31PM
A missing link?
1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1980 ? ? ? 1995, 2000, 2003, 2021
- Steely Dan Discography [allmusic.com]
- Alive in America [allmusic.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 27, @06:37PM
A found link:
Donald Fagen - The Nightfly - 1982 [archive.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 29, @04:45AM (1 child)
Apropos of gaps or leaps or taking 15-years off to cool off, Barenaked Ladies - Gordon - 1992 [archive.org] is too much fun. Including, but not limited to, Brian Wilson, Be My Yoko Ono, If I Had $1000000. But don't Blame It On Me.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 03, @08:49PM
And now, the rest of the story...
It's expanding ever outward but one day
It will cause the stars to go the other way,
Collapsing ever inward, we won't be here, it won't be heard
Our best and brightest figure that it'll make an even bigger bang!
Australopithecus would really have been sick of us
Debating how we're here, they're catching deer (we're catching viruses)
Religion or astronomy, Encarta, Deuteronomy
It all started with the big bang!
Music and mythology, Einstein and astrology
It all started with the big bang!
It all started with the big BANG!
- Barenaked Ladies
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 03, @05:08AM
And if you still can't get someone to take the hint and get out... The Knack - My Sharona 7-minutes long [archive.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 14, @05:55AM (1 child)
"Son, you're gonna drive me to drinkin' If you don't stop drivin' that Hot Rod Lincoln." — This is one of those things... you know, you just hadda be there to get it: Commander Cody - Lost In The Ozone - 1971 [archive.org] Review [allmusic.com].
If only once in the time rollin' by, I could grab onto a cherry-red eighteen-foot-long Eldorado with white leather tuck&roll, and long-lost friends hanging out the windows. We'd be holdin' up traffic at twenty-five with a cop on our tail, cruisin' among all the swells, with it cranked it up...
I told you a million times how I love you
But honey, your old fickle heart won't let me in
So I'll just relax here with this glass of gin
And head for the ozone again
I'm lost in the ozone again
I'm lost in the ozone again
One drink of wine, two drinks of gin, and
I'm lost in the ozone again
- Commander Cody And His Lost Planet Airmen
That's how to go.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 14, @06:08AM
> with it cranked it up...
Look at that, a typo to end a cooler than cool post! Now, you see, that's how we really do go out. Not with a bang, but a-plink, a-plank, a-plink plank, plink plank...
In a little honky-tonky village in Texas
There's a guy who plays the best piano by far
He can play piano any way that you like it
But the way he likes to play is eight to the bar