True or False ?

Posted: May 23, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Child Centered Activities, Chronicles of a First Time Parent, What is an Art Farm | Tags: , , , , | 1 Comment

This week in homeschooling, a true/false question arose: Is habeas corpus “…a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country”?  We have, by coincidence, been studying habeas corpus for the past seven weeks so this question did not come out of the blue.  What has been wildly surprising is to see the topic so hotly discussed in the news.    

Our humanities seminar has been titled “Habeas Corpus, Habeas Vox,” which I described in my blog dated 11 April.  We began by considering those words.  My son knows that a hearse carries a dead body, which is a “corpse,” so the Latin word corpus was readily understood.  Habeas corpus, he knows, has something to do with a body, rather than a Presidential right.  

But what to make of that Latin verb habeas?  We approached that by studying the Ancient Greeks.  The Spartans governed by a combination of diarchy (two kings ruled), oligarchy with limited democracy.  The Athenians, however, invented direct democracy, not representative democracy like our modern form.  From Athens we jumped to Medieval England to read about the Magna Carta.  In his “end-of-week” essay on 2 May my son wrote:  

This week in Humanities we studied the legacy of Greece.  Greece is located on the Mediterranean Sea.  In Classical Greece, Athens was a city state that created democracy, but only the men citizens could vote; slaves and women could not vote.  

The Greeks were known for the arts, architecture and philosophy.  In Athens there was a teacher named Socrates, known for teaching by the “Socratic Method” which was asking questions to engage his students.  Socrates was put to death by the courts because they thought he was corrupting his students.  One of his students was Plato, who wrote the Republic, which is his views of democracy.  

Something else we studied was English history.  I read about the Magna Carta, a document that gives liberties granted to the English people.  The English Barons and Nobles argued and threatened a Civil War unless King John granted those rights.  King John was very greedy and selfish.  The Magna Carta was settled on June 15, 1215 when King John affixed his seal.  

The Magna Carta gives guarantees for the people as a whole.  The people could not be convicted of their crimes unless they were lawfully convicted.  The Barons (Nobles) had the right to declare war upon the King.  The Magna Carta is considered one of the basic documents of British law.  

Next week we will do studying more on English history!

We next proceeded to study the English Bill of Rights, and then the USA Constitution.  Last week, my son wrote:

This week, Harvard University discovered they had an original copy of the Magna Carta.  There are seven original copies, and Harvard just happened to have one.  In 2007 an original copy of the Magna Carta sold for $21.3 Million Dollars.  This could not have come at a better time!

The Magna Carta was written in cursive script on a sheepskin parchment 810 years ago.  It is a legal document that gave power from the King to a small group of Men.  What the Magna Carta did was similar to the Greek direct democracy, by including people in political discussion, instead of the King alone. 

The British Bill of Rights, signed in 1689, which is 336 years ago, was a sort of New Age version of the Magna Carta.  For nowadays, the new age of the Magna Carta would be the Declaration of Independence.  The British Bill of Rights basically gave everyone a fair trial and banned cruel and unnecessary punishment. 

All of these political texts – the Magna Carta, the British Bill of Rights, the American Declaration of Independence, and all other that I have not mentioned – have slowly but surely lead up to what we have today; having “freedom,” a fair trial, and due process.  Whether you like the current President of the United States or not, he continues to challenge these monumental, historic and foundational concepts.  

Next week we will study the 1st Amendment and Abraham Lincoln’s Habeas Corpus Suspension Act.  Harvard University’s discovery of an original copy of the Magna Carta is a wild coincidence as we are studying all this!!

I should mention that the essays are entirely my son’s concepts and phrasing, but together we edit them.  As his scribe, I raise questions of grammar, word choice and structure; using the Socratic method, I challenge him but he decides as he dictates.  We use library books as primary sources to frame the concepts, which he rephrases into his own words.  If he does not know the word “plagiarism” he most certainly knows to avoid the practice.     

As the school year draws to its close, we are preparing for a debate – 6th grade version – on the essential nature of government.  Plato, the Athenian philosopher, argued that democracy is not viable, and the ideal form of government is a “benevolent dictator” more politely referred to as the Philosopher King.  This is an argument for absolute strength in the Executive branch.  In the current American moment, the occupant of that office is reviled by some as a dictator, and praised by no one as benevolent.  My son shall argue in the affirmative that the strong leader must not only be unchecked and absolute in his control, but guided by good will, even compassion.  

My son’s cousin, a Professor of Law, shall present the challenging argument, that “We the people” is a most radical proposition, but ultimately, an essential truth.  We shall leave to him to define precisely how the many can actively support the one well being of the state.  He shall argue that habeas corpus, which is due process, which is the rule of law, is the key to that functioning: the “Great Writ of Popular Sovereignty.”  

My son clearly knew the answer to the true/false question, and summed the matter up well, saying, “Do you know how embarrassing it is when a 12-year old knows habeas corpus better than an adult?!! That is really embarrassing! It just makes Americans look really dumb!” He shall be fully prepared to debate what is good, what is benevolent, what is effective leadership for the state.  

______________________________

Summer is upon us! Our warm weather starts are ready to go into the ground: tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, basil, and potatoes. Our cold weather starts do well and grow ever upright.

Art Predates Agriculture

Posted: May 16, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Art & Healing, consciousness, What is an Art Farm | Tags: , , , | 2 Comments

Civilization began, it is widely believed, with the advent of agriculture.  The time was around 10,000 BC and the place was the Fertile Crescent, which is the present day Middle East.  Sheep and pigs were first domesticated, followed by plants such as flax, wheat, barley and lentils.  The nomadic hunter-gatherers settled into agricultural communities, developed irrigation systems and established permanent settlements.  

It should be noted that this definition of “civilization” speaks to the cultures of the Abrahamic religions (Muslim, Judaism and Christianity).  The Clovis culture, however, were precursors to the Indigenous peoples of the America’s, and between 15,000 to 20,000 years ago developed stone tools, as well as agriculture, engineering, astronomy, trade, civic and monumental architecture.  Some established permanent or urban settlements, but all did not forsake their nomadic lifestyle.  There is not one civilization, but many co-inhabiting this planet.  

However civilization may be defined, the plain fact is long before we worked the soil to plant seeds, the hunter gatherers were digging to get clay and earth based pigments for painting the caves at Altamira and Lascaux; art making predates agriculture, which is to say it predates civilization, which speaks to its fundamental role in shaping human life.  Mark making is meaning making, hard-wired in our DNA, the act of making is a core means of problem-solving, both utilitarian and ideational.

Ellen Dissanayake is an ethno-anthropologist whose writings synthesize disciplines ranging from evolutionary biology to cognitive and developmental psychology.  She lived for fifteen years in non-Western countries (Sri Lanka, Papua New Guinea, India and Nigeria) among indigenous pre-literate peoples and found that all shared the trait of embellishing their tools in non-utilitarian ways; the act of “making pretty” is consistent across the globe.  This lead her to develop “…a unique perspective that considers the arts to be normal, natural, and necessary components of our evolved nature as humans.”

Far more than practical, the act of making is healing.  Art therapy is based upon this insight, which, since the 1940s, has been used in conjunction with traditional psychotherapy, to provide a non-verbal avenue for exploring emotions and experiences. The simple act of making can help treat a wide range of mental health issues and support emotional well-being, based upon the interconnectedness of mind, body, and spirit. 

Works of art such as the Sistine Chapel, a human achievement of extraordinary scale, can be overwhelming and lead most of us to cower, and say “I can’t draw.”  But that seems ego-driven, as we are schooled in a comparative and competitive paradigm, which blocks the fact that art making is biologically and psychologically at the core of everyone’s individual life.  Art, and the act of making, become the great equalizer.  

One of the lessons of carpentry – which is to say making in the practical sense – is that adverbs and adjectives do not pertain; the wall is plumb or it is not, the corner square or it is not, the house will long endure or it will not.  There is something exquisitely liberating in that plain fact.  More “sophisticated” professions do not fall under this simple truth, for example, politics and the law are based upon argumentation and persuasion rather than objective truth.  The word “sophisticated” is derived from the Sophists, in Ancient Greece, who excelled in clever deception, using rhetoric to win arguments regardless of the truth.   

In a world that is increasingly argumentative, clever and AI-interconnected, the simple act of making can become a grounding and centering force.  Let us proclaim there are four necessities in life: food, clothing, shelter and beauty; “making pretty” creates beauty while making becomes the means to achieve all the former. And all of which become an act of healing. 

___________________________

Plants push up, fruit trees blossom, and pollinators abound!

Forex Foray

Posted: May 9, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Chronicles of a First Time Parent, Money & Banking | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

For your next dinner party, an interesting parlor game is to ask the question, “What is the strongest currency in the world?”  The answer will stump many, and most likely, will surprise all.  


My son and I talked about this recently.  We were at our Credit Union and he asked about gold in their vaults – they have none – which lead to gold backing the United States Dollar (USD) – there is none.

I quoted the old joke, “There is not enough gold in Fort Knox…” and explained the Nixon Shock, when on the hot summer night of 15 August 1971, Richard Nixon – by Executive Order – suspended the convertibility of US dollars into gold.  With a stroke of his pen, Nixon unilaterally ended the post World War II Bretton Woods monetary system.  

In Latin “fiat” means “let it be done,” an authoritative decree and in monetary terms the USD is a “fiat” currency; there is no underlying asset base because it is secured only by “the promise to pay.”   In an era of rising national debt and hyper-partisan politics, that promise to pay can seem frightfully uncertain.  

“Isn’t the USD the strongest currency” my son sagely asked?  I explained that the USD is the world’s reserve currency, and so the strength of all currencies is in comparison to it.  Some currencies are weaker (less value) while others are stronger.  

As most people would, my son reasoned the strongest currency must be either in Europe or Asia, “Asia produces so much.”  Economic output logically focuses on the “Group of 7” leading industrialized nations: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the USA.  Our bias inherently is G7-centric.  

We continued to talk, and he said, “No, it must be in the Middle East!  They have so much oil.”  He was onto something, and I told him, in fact, the Kuwaiti Dinar is the strongest currency in the world.  The next three strongest currencies are also from the Middle East: Bahraini dinar, Omani rial and the Jordanian dinar.  All are net exporters of oil, with a strong inflow of foreign currencies and stable governments.  

A few years ago we drove north to Montreal, Canada.  Before the trip my son and I went to a currency exchange to buy Canadian Dollars.  He paid $1.00 USD to purchase about $1.25 Canadian Dollars.  In other words, when he bought a Lego set in Canada it cost less than it would back at home; his money went further.  A valuable lesson, and we had many fine meals on the cheap.  

The lesson here is that the value of money is relative, not fixed. Long ago money was backed by gold, now it is fiat, while oil is becoming a dominant base of value. All oil sales are settled in United States Dollars – known as “petrodollars” – but China and Saudi Arabia have begun to settle in Chinese Yuan. The USD now is declining. The global movement seems away from fiat to asset-backed currencies. The omnipotence of oil backed currency would seem to make the transition to clean energy more difficult by an order of magnitude.

In the age when gold was the standard, there were arguments for both Gold and Silver to serve as the underlying basis.  William Jennings Bryan’s historic speech advocating bimetallism, delivered in 1896 in Chicago, ranks among the finest examples of oratory in world history.  

The gold proponents were the monied class on the East Coast.  The silver constituency were the workers, the masses, the common man.  Bryan reasoned:

“The man who is employed for wages is as much a business man as his employer; the attorney in a country town…the merchant at the cross-roads store…the farmer who goes forth in the morning and toils all day,.. the miners who go down a thousand feet into the earth…are as much business men as the few financial magnates who, in a back room, corner the money of the world. We come to speak of this broader class of business men.”

He then addressed the gold proponents, and argued against supply-side economics:

“There are two ideas of government. There are those who believe that, if you will only legislate to make the well-to-do prosperous, their prosperity will leak through on those below. The Democratic idea, however, has been that if you legislate to make the masses prosperous, their prosperity will find its way up through every class which rests upon them.”

He rhetorically cut down the gold position, advocating the bimetal monetary basis to support the common man, and then in crescendo, rose to his time-honored conclusion:

“Having behind us the producing masses of this nation and the world, supported by the commercial interests, the laboring interests, and the toilers everywhere, we will answer their demand for a gold standard by saying to them: “You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns; you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.” 

Dead silence filled the Chicago Coliseum.  Bryan feared he had missed his mark, until pandemonium broke out and he was raised onto the shoulders of delegates.  “Bedlam broke loose, delirium reigned supreme” the Washington Post reported.

Gold, silver, fiat, or oil…in a world of constant change, the lesson for my son is that integrity need be his bank account, his word his bond, character alone counts. By that true standard he will do well regardless of the rising or falling tides of money and banking.    

__________________________

In our home school chemistry class, solid progress had been made, my son has made his mark.

Ice Cream Revelations

Posted: May 2, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Child Centered Activities, Chronicles of a First Time Parent, consciousness, What is an Art Farm | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

I recently went driving at night with my children to go eat ice cream. Pope Francis having died, my daughter mentioned Tik Tok talk of the prophecy of Saint Malachy.  As it were, I’m familiar with those prophecies, having heard about them almost 30 years ago.

Saint Malachy lived in Northern Ireland in the 1100s.  Born Máel Máedóc, he served as Archbishop of Armagh and was the Primate of All Ireland – the highest ranking position in the Catholic and Episcopalian Church of Ireland.  His predecessor was no less than Saint Patrick, known as the “Apostle of Ireland,” venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church, the Lutheran Church, the Church of Ireland, and in the Eastern Orthodox Church.  ‘Tis no small role to be the Primate of All Ireland.  

Malachy’s prophecy presaged 112 more popes before the Last Judgment.  Pope Francis happens to be that 112th pope.  The prophecy is widely debunked, but on social media it seems to be generating great interest.    

My daughter explained the conventional view, that following the last Pope will come the rapture, when the dead and living believers will be lifted up in the air, ascending to heaven at the Second Coming of Christ.  My son, a deep thinking Sagittarean, questioned, “what about the others?”  I clarified, “…the Buddhist, the Muslim, the child of Indigenous parents…?” 

My son questioned more deeply, “How can a God of love exclude half of the world’s population?”  My daughter repeated the factual statement that the faithful believe theirs alone shall be redemption.  When she spoke of the risen Christ, I queried about John 14:12 “These and greater deeds ye shall do” which means to raise the dead, to walk on water, to feed loaves and fishes to the masses…come one come all – he says – we the people all have that power.  Who among us shall believe, and act?    

And so we drove, into the dark night, eating our ice cream.  

I reminded them that the world in fact came to an end on 12/12/12, just over 12 years ago.  Such was the popular view, pre-Tik Tok.  I spoke of the Mayan Long Count calendar, the end of a 5,126 year-long cycle.  250-950 AD was the Mayans’ Classic period, the peak of their large-scale construction, urbanism, monumental inscriptions, and significant intellectual and artistic development.  Their flowering has been likened to that of Renaissance Italy or Classical Greece.  Everyone reading this essay today knows that the world did not end on 12/12/12; the Mayan calendar’s end marked only a new beginning.  In Hindu terms, this is Shiva’s cosmic dance, his never ending destruction creation cycle.  

A friend has read the Book of Revelations and suggests that the current Commander in Chief is the 8th King of the Roman Empire, Revelation 17, “destined for destruction,” the Antichrist.  Indeed we can read the “two beasts” as representing opposing forces of evil: one from the sea (Manhattan and Florida) is a political power that dominates the world, a healed gash to its head, seeking to establish himself as a pagan deity, while releasing scorpions.   The beast from the earth (Africa), the False Prophet, helps the sea beast gain global control, sends fire from heaven and promotes the worship of the beast from the sea and works to deceive people through signs and wonder. 

Carl Jung came to mind, in Psychology and Alchemy his observation that religions perfectly coopted the archetypes to their narrative.  Scriptural writing to my mind seems symbolic more than a factual narrative.  The end of one narrative is but the beginning of another.  

Talk of the end of the world is not for the faint of heart.  As we drove, as we ate our two scoops of ice cream in waffle cones, the popular song from 40 years ago by the band REM came to mind, “It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine.”  

And so we ate our ice cream. We will figure it out in the light of day. The sun will rise, life will go on, world without end, amen.

__________________________________

Gaia pushes up the Garlic while cold weather starts go into the ground: Kale, Chard, Lettuce, Pac Choy, Snap Peas, Fennel, Shallots, Scallions, Rosemary, Parsley and Thyme.

And most importantly, Eve has come to our garden! A 4-in-1 semi-dwarf apple tree, a gift from Grammy Moana to Becca, with four varieties grafted onto the root stock: Fuji, Pink Lady, Honeycrisp, and Ginger Gold. Something for everyone! She joins our two peach trees and a sour cherry tree. I cannot tell a lie, my son cut down our sweet cherry tree last summer, at my instruction. The trunk had a serious gash and its time was ended. Every end is a new beginning, the circle of life, and Eve has taken its place!

Swashbuckling Swamp Tales

Posted: April 25, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Child Centered Activities, Chronicles of a First Time Parent, Portfolio - Elena's work | Leave a comment

The children and I recently walked the swamp trails at 29°56’33” N by 89°59’39” W, the Barataria Preserve in the Mississippi River Delta of Louisiana.  Long ago this was the land of Jean Lafitte, a swashbuckling rogue of French or Spanish or Haitian descent, a pirate and slave trader, as handsome as he was cunning and shrewd, who played all sides against the others in the era when Thomas Jefferson purchased Louisiana from the French in 1803.  

During the war of 1812, King George III of England offered Lafitte and his men citizenship and land grants if they would fight for the British.  Lafitte shrewdly leveraged that offer to form an alliance with the Americans – his piracy was easier against US Revenue agents than the British Navy – but then after Andrew Jackson agreed to a full pardon for all of his men,  Lafitte’s troops fought with Jackson to defeat the British at the battle of New Orleans.  The pirates’ skill with artillery was greater than the British Navy and Andrew Jackson praised their “courage and fidelity.”

During the Mexican War of Independence in 1815, Lafitte and his brother acted as spies for Spain, which allowed them to develop Galveston Island as another smuggling base outside the authority of the United States.  The swashbuckling history was of great interest to me, but my children only wanted to see an alligator.  To no avail though, as the temperatures were warm enough that the gators laid low, hidden in the water to stay cool from the sun’s heat.  We saw no gators, but plenty of snakes, frogs and spiders.   

Isaac in Isolation

Posted: April 18, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Child Centered Activities | Tags: , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

In 1665 the plague descended upon London, forcing all the residents to go into isolation. The COVID-19 of its day, in an age before plumbing or electricity, before iPhones and apps, the isolation was complete to a degree that we can barely fathom today. 

A 22-year old named Isaac used his solitude well, conceiving the laws of infinitesimal calculus. Leibniz is credited with developing Calculus but young Isaac was 8 years ahead of him. Einstein has hailed the insights as “perhaps the greatest advance in thought.”  

At the age of 44 Isaac walked in the gardens of Cambridge University and observed an apple falling straight down to the earth. So he surmised and proceeded to publish, in 1687, Principia which established the foundation for classical mechanics.  A manuscript from the Royal Society retells this conversation of 15 April 1726, when Isaac told a colleague how the idea came to him:

“we went into the garden, & drank thea under the shade of some appletrees, only he, & myself. amidst other discourse, he told me, he was just in the same situation, as when formerly, the notion of gravitation came into his mind. “why should that apple always descend perpendicularly to the ground,” thought he to him self: occasion’d by the fall of an apple, as he sat in a comtemplative mood: “why should it not go sideways, or upwards? but constantly to the earths centre? assuredly, the reason is, that the earth draws it. there must be a drawing power in matter. & the sum of the drawing power in the matter of the earth must be in the earths center, not in any side of the earth. therefore dos this apple fall perpendicularly, or toward the center. if matter thus draws matter; it must be in proportion of its quantity. therefore the apple draws the earth, as well as the earth draws the apple.”

By the age of 55 Isaac had been named, by the British Crown, the Warden of the Mint, and then served as the Master of the Mint for 30-years.  In contemporary terms, the Master was essentially the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, responsible to ensure the value and to assay the gold content of the King’s coins. 

At the age of 62 the King bestowed upon him Knighthood, which is why we universally refer to him as Sir Isaac Newton, one of the towering figures in history, a paragon of rational thought.  

What is less well known of Sir Isaac is that he was a leading alchemist of his day.  The irony is almost mind-boggling: when alchemy was a crime punishable by death by public hanging the Master of the Mint was busy trying to turn base metals into gold.  It is said of more than 10 million words of notes taken by Newton, 1 million at least pertained to alchemy. His interest was more than just a passing curiosity.  By any conventional thought, that is an idea laughably hard to grasp.  

What if alchemy is not about base metals turned into gold, but rather a symbolic language for the pursuit of higher consciousness?  In the three-dimensional realm of conventional thought, where the laws of physics and Darwinian materialism reign supreme, what better symbolism could there be than “base metals” and “gold” referring to the path to wisdom of a greater whole.  

Carl Jung in his Alchemy and Psychology and Fabricius in Alchemy: The Medieval Alchemists and Their Royal Art suggest that this is, in fact, the more accurate understanding.  In The Foundations of Newton’s Alchemy, B.J.T. Dobbs argues that “Newton’s primary goal was not the study of nature for its own sake but rather an attempt to establish a unified system that would have included both natural and divine principles.”  Newton was a critical link between the Renaissance Hermeticism and the rational chemistry and mechanics of the scientific revolution; in moving the scientific world forward, he looked back upon Neoplatonism, which in turn drew upon the writings of Hermes Trismegistus, the towering Hellenistic sage.  

History teaches that higher consciousness threatens conventional thought. In 33 AD the self-righteous Pharisees had the radical street preacher put to death by public hanging. Martin Luther King had an FBI file and was assassinated for arguing that “all people are created equal.” In the year 2025, the pious among us ban books from libraries that challenge their narrow minded sense of self. The orthodox, it seems, are not expansive but restrictive and limiting.

Newton was wise never to publish his alchemical writings. In fact, many of them were burned by a fire; the story told that a dog knocked over a candle in his study, but one wonders what was the risk to his reputation for that intellectual pursuit.  He remained, in a sense, in isolation throughout his life for his pursuit of alchemy. 

The record shows that when Newton stepped down from the 2nd Lucasian Professorship of Mathematics – considered the single most prestigious professorship in the world – his replacement, William Whiston excoriated Newton publicly for his highly unorthodox views.  No doubt Professor Whiston was smug in his self righteous words and considered the case closed. But in fact, it may be that he had simply locked himself, and his peers, inside the box of self limiting, rational thought.

The world is more vast than we tend to conceive.  It would seem the challenge of our times now is to expand our collective higher consciousness, to awaken and more fully hear and embrace those “mystic chords…of our better angels.”

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Habeas Corpus, Habeas Vox

Posted: April 11, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Child Centered Activities, Chronicles of a First Time Parent, consciousness | Tags: , , | 2 Comments

One recent morning, my son stood in the kitchen, riveted, listening to the radio.  Briskly he spoke, “Dad, how can the President deport citizens for what they say?  Isn’t this a violation of their First Amendment rights?  When someone enters the country legally, they gain the right of free speech!…upon entry, but they are being deported for saying things the President does not like!  They have the right to speak!  I don’t understand this!!?”  My son’s concern for Free Speech coincides with the right of Due Process. 

Knowing it takes a village, I reached out to his cousin WMMK – my nephew – a young law professor who, as it were, is an expert in habeas corpus, which is to say Due Process.  WMMK has been published, arguing that habeas corpus is the “…Great Writ of Popular Sovereignty — a tool for We the People to insist that when our agents in government exercise our delegated penal powers, they remain faithful to our sovereign will.”  WMMK argues “…the implications for the law of habeas are profound…Paradoxically, shifting from a libertarian to a popular-sovereigntist conception of the writ might yield habeas doctrine more capable of protecting individual liberty.”

My son having raised questions of individual liberty, and given his cousin’s strong clear voice, I decided to create a homeschool Humanities Seminar.  Habeas corpus in Latin means “you should have the body.”  And where there is a body, there is a voice.  Thus we prepare to homeschool “Habeas Corpus, Habeas Vox: Due Process and the 1st Amendment.” 

All roads do not lead to Rome.  Plato and Aristotle taught that justice within the state held civic virtue (“arete”) as its key; they did not teach specific legal mechanisms to protect individual liberties.  

It would take a peasant boy, born in Dardania (present day Balkans) to craft those mechanisms. Justinian – Emperor of the Byzantine Empire – not only built the Hagia Sophia but codified the great Roman jurists; his Corpus Juris Civilis (“Body of Civil Law”) (529-534 AD) endures as the basis of European and International law.  But the heavy lifting came in medieval England.  

King John was arbitrary and autocratic, and so his Barons spoke up and rebelled. They forced him, in 1215, to sign the Magna Carta which guaranteed “No freeman shall be taken or imprisoned or disseised or exiled or in any way destroyed…except upon the lawful judgement of his peers or the law of the land.”  Given habeas vox, so then habeas corpus; the Habeas Corpus Act was codified in 1679 and remains on the statute book to this day: prisoners cannot be held indefinitely without a judicial review of their detention.  

The origins of free speech – in the Western tradition – go back to Athenian democracy, in the late 6th or early 5th century BC.  They had two concepts of free speech; isegoria was “equality of speech” where all freeborn males had a direct voice in debating and passing laws, while parrhesia was “uninhibited speech,” a culture of tolerance and the free exchange of ideas and criticisms.  Erasmus (circa 1500) and Milton (1644) weighed in, but again it was the English Parliament, whose Bill of Rights in 1689 established the constitutional right of freedom of speech.  On that recent weekday morning, my son honored that tradition, arguing on behalf of individual liberty.  

What then shall our seminar entail?  I have begun assembling a reading list to include:

  • In Classical Greece justice was the proper functioning of the state as a whole, with community and mutual respect valued higher than individual liberties.  The greatest punishment was for the intransigent to be exiled, which is to say to have their voice taken away.  
  • Justinian’s reign occurred at a hinge point of history.  Considered among the greatest, and the last, of the Roman Emperors, his achievements marked the apex of Roman expansion, until a flea carrying the bubonic plague brought massive death:  between 25 and 100 Million deaths and the downfall of the empire.  The armies of Mohammad easily ransacked both Rome and Persia, and history moved from late antiquity to the medieval world.  
  • The Magna Carta was foundational to British Common Law, as developed through judicial decisions rather than written codes; “Stare Decisis” means that courts shall follow earlier rulings in similar cases, with precedent as the governing basis.  Stability is a virtue.  The British Bill of Rights built upon this tradition and became the basis for much of American law.  
  • The Judiciary Act of 1789 established the American judiciary – the mechanism of due process – and was followed by Amendment One to the USA Constitution, ratified on December 15, 1791:  “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
  • Abraham Lincoln suspended the right of habeas corpus at his sole discretion when he signed The Habeas Corpus Suspension Act of 1863.  He argued the public safety required it, such as during rebellion or invasion of the Civil War.  
  • And finally, we will come to the present day, to discuss the fundamental meaning of freedom of speech with American habeas as the vindication not of individual physical liberty, but of popular sovereignty.  How does the state protect the voice of “We the People”?  WMMK will lead this discussion.  

We need pay heed to the fact that for every minute we ponder such noble thoughts, in El Salvador, Kilmar Abrego Garcia is detained wrongfully, without due process, by an administration driven not by justice but reptilian id, anger and revenge for its own gratification; how frail is the law to those who shall not heed its calling.  The Magna Carta is but words on paper in the face of any regime that abuses human rights, and these rights must belong not to the privileged few, but to all people created equal.  

We study the past to inform our future; patterns of discrimination are the reality against which this philosophy need be understood, in order to raise my son with both an intellectual understanding and the emotional intelligence of a 21st Century global citizen.

______________________

Persephone returns…

Beyond the Rubicon

Posted: April 4, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Child Centered Activities, Chronicles of a First Time Parent | Tags: , , , , , , | 2 Comments

And so it came to pass, on the 10th day of March I delivered to the Superintendent my Notice of Intent to Home School.  Life’s newest adventure began with a flurry of last-minute decision making. 

On that same day the local School Department announced a $5 Million budget shortfall, and the Department of Education began to be decimated.  Change abounds; our timing providential.  

There is no turning back.  

A world of materials is available online.  Khan Academy is one not-for-profit free site with a goal “to create online tools that help educate students.”  The site has 168.7 registered users, 58.7 Billion total learning minutes, and annual revenues of $107.3 Million.  My son had used the platform at school, so we adapt that to our needs.

With DOGE-like efficiency, we pare the day down to its most basic form.  The result is productive.  The conventional middle school day lasts 6.25 hours, of which half is spent in homeroom, lunch, recess, “Jobs For Maine Graduates,” plus walking the halls between classes; thus about 3 hours for straight line study of Math, Science, and Humanities but a portion of classroom time is lost in the quotidian, explanations and questions, the general bustle.  The essential learning reduces further toward 1.5 hours.  At home we easily do that much, then add in outings, exercise, and hands-on experience.  Bottom line: my son is engaged.  

For Science, we have been using the Periodic Table of Elements to learn welding.  I hired a friend, the “Pema Professor,” a journeyman philosopher/carpenter to teach this course.  We drive to his home in Lyman, Maine.  The first week’s homework was to circle the elements Hydrogen, Helium, Argon, Iron and Carbon.  We also discussed the Noble Gases and Noble Metals.  The practicum was MIG welding, an electric arc between a continuously fed wire electrode and the metal, melting both to create the weld – a pool of molten metal – protected by a shielding gas.  Argon prevents water from entering the weld, which would lead to rust, to failure. 

The second week focused on the difference between an element and a molecule.  My son used an acetylene torch to bend metal.  Acetylene gas is mixed with oxygen to create a high-temperature flame, reaching well over 1,000 degrees.  The metal turned cherry red then bent as the heat increased the energy, electrons moving freely, expanding, creating a pliable rather than rigid structure.  My son held the torch, set hot metal into a wooden jig, his weight laid against the rod, it bent. He is forming the letters of his name.  Making his mark. 

For math we are doing online exercises and learning the Pythagorean Theorem.  Hidden in plain sight, Pythagorus resides in every corner of every room.  As we design and build a trapezoidal bookcase, he can measure and calculate the legs and hypotenuse, help prepare the measured drawing and then build.  Stay tuned on that one!

He has asked to be more challenged, and so I expand our repertoire; more math handouts and more reading materials to come.  He is cooking meals, which brings a chance to study weights and measures, even converting metric to standard.  As the growing season erupts we will dig into the earth at friends’ farms.  My son helps with repairs at the Friends School of Portland; as a private religious school OSHA and Child Labor Laws do not pertain.  

To assist in our holy experiment and to handle the annual assessment I have hired a State of Maine Certified Teacher.  Alexander the Great, at the age of 13, was tutored by Aristotle; I shall refer then to this teacher as “Our Aristotle.”  A young man, he was my son’s student teacher last year in the 5th grade; a keen and passionate observer, dedicated to his students’ needs.  He was fired when the Assistant Principal told him – at the last hour of the last day – to change classrooms.  “Our Aristotle” declined, reasoning that his students would benefit from closure, while an abrupt change would abrogate their experience while giving worthless time to engage new students.  The Assistant Principal issued an ultimatum but “Our Aristotle” called the bluff; escorted out of the building, his dignity was in tact.  The Administrator lost on all counts and all the students were left wanting.  

My son, born of the “Anxious Generation,” comes of age during an epidemic of mental illness and teen suicide.  Social media is a black hole, its focus upon other, not self.  Grounding must come from within.  Such is the tradition of New England: Henry David Thoreau, “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you’ve imagined,” or the Bard of Concord, “Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.”  Our Aristotle exemplified same in his refusal to acquiesce.  He spoke truth to power.  

Such then is the temperament we want to shape our son’s bearing and so our team grows.  Life has no dress rehearsal.  My son comes of age now, I am charged with his education.  Schooled to the standards of the state, he will be educated to all of life.  

In March we crossed the Rubicon.  Now we go forward daily.  We shall see where all this leads.

A Wily Problem Solver

Posted: March 28, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Art & Healing, Chronicles of a First Time Parent, consciousness | Tags: , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

The desire of the Tech Oligarchs to fight and break things is widely known, clearly displayed.  Among this rogue band of Billionaires the intellectual appears to be Marc Andreessen, co-creator of the Mosaic web-browser and co-founder of a Silicon Valley venture capital fund.  

On Substack, Mr. Andreessen has written, “I was asked what I think of Mark Zuckerberg’s recent Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) training, Elon Musk’s challenge to a cage fight, and public reports that a Zuckerberg/Musk MMA fight may well happen…perhaps in the actual Roman Colosseum.  I said, “I think it’s all great.  …it’s important to understand how important – how primal – MMA is in the story of our civilization.”

He proceeds to tell the origin of the sport, “…it was introduced to the actual Greek Olympic Games in 648 BC (!).  The Greeks called it “pankration” (παγκράτιον), but it is the same thing – a combination of boxing and wrestling.”  Trying to impress us by using the Greek letters – Google Translate is free – in fact Mr. Andreessen is showing his lack of understanding.  

The rape and abduction of Helen is central to Greek culture; masculine strength and dominance were key, and the Iliad tells the story of the ten-year fight against the Trojans.  Helen’s beauty was so great, her “face that launched one thousand ships” when Menelaus, her husband, the King of Sparta, rallied the Greeks to settle the score for her infidelity.  

The Iliad sings the praise of manly heroes skilled in fighting and warfare.  But the greatest among the heroes was Odysseus, whose skill was not warfare but resourcefulness, his wily, cunning ability to solve problems.  

Of Homer’s two epic poems the Iliad is an ensemble story, while the Odyssey sings of Odysseus, alone, his ten-year homecoming after the Trojan War, his return to Penelope and their marriage bed.  

During the War, Odysseus was one of the most trusted counselors and advisors.  A voice of reason, renowned for self-restraint and diplomacy, he served as a counter balance to the pugilism among the heroes.  His homecoming was filled with travail, the hero’s journey in the most archetypal sense.  Consider the challenges he overcame:

  • When Achilles’ beloved Patroclus was slain, Odysseus negotiated with Achilles to let the men eat and rest, rather than resume the fight.  Funeral games were held and Odysseus wrestled with Ajax “The Greater” and raced with Ajax “The Lesser.”  He drew the wrestling match, and with the help of Athena, won the foot race.  His manliness well-equaled that of other heroes.  
  • Odysseus devised the Trojan Horse, and lead the siege within the walls of Troy.  This brought the defeat of the Trojans, and the end of the war.  
  • Homebound from Troy, his ships were driven off course and captured by the Cyclops Polyphemus.  He and the Cyclops drank much wine, which allowed Odysseus to blind him and then escape.
  • Aeolus, the master of the winds, gifted a leather bag containing all of the winds except the west wind, to ensure his safe trip home.  But his sailors opened the bag while Odysseus slept, releasing the winds to create a major storm, driving them off course, when his homeland was within sight.  
  • They re-embarked and encountered the Laestrygonians – man eating giants – which only Odysseus’ ship escaped.  Circe the witch-goddess turned half of his men into swine, then Odysseus and his remaining crew spent one year with her enjoying feast and drink.  
  • He set sail to the western edge of the world, summoned the spirit of the prophet Tiresias and learned of Penelope threatened by suitors.  He sailed onward, past the land of the Sirens, through the dire straits of the Scylla and Charybdis, after which his crew hunted down the sacred cattle of the sun god Helios.  A shipwreck followed, in which everyone except Odysseus drowned.  He washed ashore, whereupon Calypso, a sea nymph, compelled him to remain her lover for seven years.  
  • He escaped, set sail, shipwrecked again but befriended the Phaeacians, whose King agreed to deliver Odysseus home, to a hidden harbor on Ithaca, his home island.  
  • Home after 20-years, he sleuthed the island to learn the status quo.  His son Telemachus, now a grown man, also returned from the Trojan War, theirs was a grand reunion, of secrecy.  
  • His wife Penelope, having held at bay her suitors for decades, announced that whoever could string Odysseus’ rigid bow and shoot an arrow through twelve axe shafts should have her hand in marriage.  Dressed as a wandering beggar, Odysseus alone strung the bow and won Penelope’s hand, once again.  He and Telemachus, his son, easily slayed the suitors. 
  • Penelope still could not believe her husband had returned, and so tested him with a ruse: she ordered her servant to move the bed in their wedding chamber.  Odysseus protested, knowing this could not be done as he himself had built their wedding bed and knew that one of its legs was a living olive tree.  Rooted deeply into the ground, such was the union of Penelope and Odysseus, which survived 20 years of separation.  
  • To avenge the killing of the Suitors, the citizens of Ithaca rose up, but Athena and Zeus intervened and both sides made peace; after 20 years’ destruction the Odyssey ends with peace and reunion.  

In 431 BC, Sparta attacked and defeated Athens, with the justification that “might makes right.”  And now, Mr. Andreessen praises the primal, “If it was good enough for Heracles and Theseus, it’s good enough for us.  Fight!”

But the apex of Classical Greece – the birthplace of democracy – was the Athenians’ understanding of virtue. From Socrates, to Plato, to his student Aristotle, civic virtue – “arete” – emphasized justice, courage, and moderation for the benefit of the community, rather than the individual.  To the Greeks, the most enduring heroic quality was not skill in warfare, but cunning command to solve problems for the civic good.  

Elon Musk, called “the smartest 15-year old on the planet,” holds now the keys to the American kingdom.   For better or worse, our House seems reduced to Animal House.  The tech bros – the puer aeternus – shine in their moment to break and destroy with libertarian glee.  But this moment of breaking shall pass – all things pass – and great then shall be our collective need to problem solve.  

We the people must rise to the coming moment.  

______________________________

Art Ark Redux

Posted: March 21, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Portfolio - David's work | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

The Sea Monster Adoption program continues! We delivered last week Wendy the Whale to the Children’s Room at the Portland Public Library. Truth be told, donations are a daunting challenge. All was at a dead end until last minute Chris learned the Public Library is a “quasi Public institution” and thus, not under the direct domain of the City Government. The flood gates opened, the truck rolled and Wendy arrived at the loading dock. The Library staff, patrons and children were overjoyed!

The Art Ark also rolled north, delivering Dottie the Dragon and Wanda the Walrus to their new home at the Children’s Discovery Museum in Waterville, Maine.

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