So yesterday was the second time I broke my photography streak -- damn. I'm still going to keep at it, but I'm disappointed.
Yesterday was rough, but I still need to make it a habit to pull out my camera.
Today is Columbus Day, one of my favorite holidays, but for different reasons.
Back in elementary school, we'd color in pictures of The Nina, The Pinta, and the Santa Maria, cut 'em out and paste 'em on the wall. Then, we told the story of Christopher Columbus and how he'd sailed the ocean in search of riches and spices. And while on that journey, Columbus accidentally discovered America.
Columbus was a simple story of a man taking a chance (yes, people believed, we were taught, the earth was flat - a falsehood), overcoming the odds, and changing the world forever.
And yes, Columbus ran into the ingenious people inhabiting the new to them world and accidentally called them Indians, thinking he landed in India, his actual destination.
Of course, Columbus' story grew more complex as I grew up.
There was colonization, slavery, war, and disease.
In recent years, there's been a backlash against good o’l Chris Columbus. I'll admit some of it is warranted, but some isn't.
And it's in this backlash where I receive my most glee.
Now, here's the thing:
I'm a big believer in Western Civilization. The mixture of the philosophies of the Greeks and Judea-Christians is perhaps the single most significant thing to happen to the world.
Because ask yourself, which other civilization would you rather live under now?
Do you think the Aztecs would've allowed things like Women's Suffrage?
I'm sitting under a nice fan that's cooling me right now, do you think the Huns would've had the science to create an electric fan.
Do you think "peaceful protests" would be allowed under a Marxist/Communistic regime?
If you do, let's talk about Tank Man in Tiananmen Square.
There have been civilizations that lasted thousands of years yet never even came close to our current ideals.
Again, is Western Civilization perfect?
No, and it isn't very reasonable to think it would be. It's taken a long while to get to where we are. Often it's been bloody.
But Western Civilization, Christopher Columbus' worldview is what He brought to the New World. I'd also argue his Christian ethos as well, which is a force for good in the world.
We know a little about North and South America before 1492, but we know this - it was inhabited by human beings with all the issues the rest of the world wrestled with.
The Aztecs had an empire, and logic tells us empires are built by war and subjection.
That said, once I was in an argument with this guy about this stuff.
I asked him if he had ever watched Mel Gibson's Apocalypto.
He said he had.
I said, "yeah, I was the only one in the theatre that gave it a standing ovation because the white man showed up."
Oh, man, the guy lost it.
And that's why Columbus Day is one of my favorite holidays.