Columbus discovered America in 1492.

(My second grade text book)

Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492.

We as a people are facing climate change, inflation/deflation, women's rights, war, poverty, wage gaps, voting rights, air and water pollution, food stamps, education, gun rights....

There is always present the concept of definition.

Who or what or where is GOD?

I cannot define GOD and so I am an agnostic.

I do not believe that a human being can define GOD.

Which makes me sure that those beings who think that they can define GOD are guilty of hubris.

And hubris is supposedly the greatest sin a human can commit against THE GODS.

Which is the reason that I will never doubt that there is a GOD.

If I did so, I would be guilty of hubris.

Hell, I cannot really define the difference between fiction and nonfiction.

If I quote some idiot who has stated that the world is flat, is that fiction or nonfiction?

If I quote some idiot who has stated that gay people comprise a particular group that GOD despises, is that fiction or nonfiction?

If you read Animal Farm, are you really reading nonfiction? With all the truths posed in Animal Farm, is that piece of art really nonfiction?

Okay, enough of that.

Europe initiated contact with the NEW WORLD in 1492.

To me that statement is nonfiction.

Right or wrong, legal or illegal, unfair or fair, evil or not,,,that is what happened and Columbus was the first to enter a brand new world and a brand new tradition.

I say this because following the year 1492, the entire world changed forever.

I believe that the Norse discovered the New World around the first Millennium and actually established a short lived encampment in North America.

I believe that Pacific Island groups had been trading with South America for centuries, per Thor Heyerdahl.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thor_Heyerdahl

I have no problems with those who are sure Irish Monks or other Vikings or whoever 'found' North America.

But something happened following the adventures of Christopher Columbus.

The world exploded on that date.

To ignore that fact is to ignore that we are not the center of the universe or to ignore that the earth revolves around the sun or that women do like sex!

All of a sudden, the Europeans end up on our shores and conquer the Americas.

That is a fact, that is what happened unless I choose to discard all that I have learned over the last sixty years.

There was this argument concerning Time Magazine and its decision to nominate Adolph Hitler as Man of the Year in the thirties.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Person_of_the_Year

Well, the sombitch was man of the year at that time, whether or not you loved him or hated him.

ADOLPH WAS THE MAN.

An evil man for sure.

Columbus discovered America.

Good or bad, right or wrong, evil or good, this Italian brought Europe over to the New World.

Like Gutenberg and his press, in 1439, the world changed forever. One can argue that the press was invented in China centuries before, but damn, books were not printed in Europe before Gutenberg.

And all of a sudden, there appeared thousands and thousands and eventually billions of books over the last 500 years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Gutenberg

This little squib had me laughing so hard I just could not ignore it.

These celebrations are a fiesta of illusion. As Spain’s conquistadors discovered, and we too often forget, Florida is like Play-Doh. Take the goo; mold it to your dream. Then watch the dream ooze back into goo. Contrary to what our school books taught us, Ponce did not discover Florida. He never did much of anything here except get himself killed.

Florida probably was first sighted by Portuguese navigators, or perhaps by the Cabots sailing from England. Either way, it started appearing on maps as early as 1500. By 1510, its distinctive peninsular shape had emerged clearly on maps in Europe. By 1513, when Ponce de Léon first arrived, so many Europeans had visited Florida that some Indians greeted him in Spanish.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/02/opinion/ponce-de-leon-exposed.html?nl=opinion&emc=edit_ty_20130402&_r=0

http://dagblog.com/arts/ponce-de-leon-george-w-bush-16454

WHO IN THE HELL GIVES ONE GODDAMN ABOUT VASCO DA GAMA?

But when nature calls, I am forced to ponder whatever fricking book is lying on the outhouse floor.

Well, it turns out that this critique was probably the most illuminating piece of paper that I had the opportunity to ponder all week.

Vasco it seems had some headstrong antithesis against the theories and the persona of one Christopher Columbus.

Vasco thought, fuck this western approach to India; I am proceeding South....for a ways anyway.

So Vasco takes his team around the Cape of Good Hope and proceeds north to find India.

Now unlike Chris who had no idea what he was doing, no idea where he was really heading and no idea of where he found himself; Vasco found what both these great navigators were looking for.

Da Gama found India.

http://dagblog.com/reader-blogs/vasco-da-gama-outhouse-11669

 

How does one define a word like 'discover' or 'invent' or 'create' or a word like GOD?

These thoughts have been on my mind.

And as far as I am concerned, good or bad, Columbus discovered America.

The end.