I caught Ray at the hotel just before he got off duty at 9 AM. I walked in the lobby and my first words to Ray were, “We need to hold council.” He said, “Okay, I’m free in ten minutes.” The owner was there, a Chinese man, and everyone was talking about the Mets, and a five page spread on their new-found success graced the Middletown Record. We were trying to remember the first names of both Matsuis.
I asked Ray, who honors the environment and the safety of other drivers by owning no car (he has only one eye, so his depth perception is off) if he wanted me to drive him home to catch up on his sleep or go see the Great Turtle of Rhinebeck, which was an hour away. He said he wanted to see the turtle, so off we went. On the way we discussed the issue of how protesters of the Republican Convention can avoid pain if shot by a laser cannon firing a UV ray carrying a microwave charge. (This crowd control pain beam weapon has been in development for some time, soon to be a space ray above you!) I asked if wearing purple would absorb the UV enough to disrupt the micro, he said probably a royal purple would. I asked if suntan lotion would have an effect on the UV and said yes, but so would wearing long sleeves, but the micro would still affect the person. I asked, “Isn’t there some kind of paint that reflects UV light?” He said, “Yes, those black light posters from the sixties use a paint that would reflect UV, and it can’t be too expensive ‘cause those posters were cheap.”
He added that if out in the open and shot with UV it would help to be a black person, with sufficient melanin! (but being black will probably not help you withstand the microwaves) He also said that the “black light” paint might “excite” the UV ray enough to dissolve the microwave before it gets too far past the “poster.” Space Ray is not a protester per se but is interested in physics. It would be interesting to experiment with wearing black-light type paint on your body while being shot with a UV cannon. It might help but then again it might not as the micro portion of the wave might still travel a foot or two through the body—perhaps sufficiently scattered to cause less harm. We also continued our discussion on the best use of mylar as a body armor material. I am still not convinced it is effective, but theoretically it should be. Of course, just musing on the physics of pain is no remedy for addressing the ethical questions behind the use of these new weapons, nor is it any match for 66 mm aluminum foil suits.
Chunks From the Beginning of Time
After much walking we found the turtle at the hidden location, and as an Algonquin person, he was quite moved. He said our friend KA had just called yesterday and said she found a stone turtle in Rockland County, and her description of it was similar. Ray noted that there was Pipsissewa growing next to the turtle; a plant associated with the MicMac, used not only for breaking up gall stones but for coughs and sore throats. It has a waxy consistency and somewhat minty. We found some growing elsewhere in the area but it is a northern plant, rare in these parts. Ray said that the Matouac associated it with the Puckwadjee, the ‘little people” of the forest. My mother referred to a mouse, a “little person of the forest” as Pipsissewa in my childhood bedtime stories.
Ray also noted the turtle was surrounded by Pinchot Junipers; we counted ten of them. The presence of Pinchot Junipers adds a great deal to the significance of this spot. The Lenape might have called them “ca-ho-see” or cedar, as a general term, and cedars were planted by the Lenape in places of contemplation “for the benefit of the next generations.” (this is mentioned in Native New Yorkers). However, Pinchot Junipers (and not cedar) produce a grayish berry which the ancient Algonquins used to eat to induce visions. Knowledge of how to use this berry has been lost and it is now extremely dangerous to chew the berry, which can cause death. About ten years ago, a group of young Micmacs who used Juniper without the help of an elder died after chewing Juniper berries. It was in all the papers. There seemed to be four Junipers, in the four directions around the turtle, the largest of which had fallen over. From there several others had apparently spread. This is evidence that the turtle was a place for seeking visions, a dreamers rock! Ray said that his Matouac grandparents on Long Island for example liked to plant the Pinchot Juniper around the outside of the house, not to chew the berries, but just because it is sacred as is the cedar. He said it was a very “Matouac” tree, a tradition which the Wappingers would have inherited.
I pointed to the head of the turtle, and said it looked like a particular type of turtle, the dino-looking one who sticks his head up out of the water with his nose high up. Ray said the turtle head was an accurate depiction of the head of the Mullenberg Bog Turtle, one of the oldest species known. Ray has a Masters Degree in Turtleology from Bogg State University. (Actually, in marine biology from a real university) Bog turtles burrow into the mud, which was most likely the origin of (or inspiration for) the Lenape “Mud Diver” Creation Story. (see http://www.algonquinculture.org for a sound file of my Munsee/English rendition of the famous tale, mentioned elsewhere in this blog) In that same sub-species is not only the more recently evolved “snapping turtle” but the musk turtle, the eastern mud turtle, and “stinkpot” turtle, all folk names for the same thing. This face seemed to have two sides to it, sort of like the Maysingway.
The back of the turtle suggested a calendar turtle type, (Box, spotted pond etc) a different species than the snapper family which evolved from the bog turtle. So the head represented the creation of the earth and the back represented not only the hemisphere but the creation of the sky.
Then came the most amazing discovery. I showed him the ten or so chunks of what I thought must be quartz built into the structure and lying around. He said it was not quartz but Shawangunk Silurian Conglomerate. I was amazed. I had studied Shawangunk Conglomerate and knew that it could only be found at places like Sam’s Point, over sixty miles away, that it was almost 148 million years old, and very heavy to the heft. He handed me a piece he found on the ground. It was incredibly dense!! I said, “It’s as dense as Kryptonite!” It had reminded me of Shawangunk Silurian Conglomerate, but I thought, “No, that’s utterly impossible!” Apparently it was possible. Ray added that it could be found at Schunnemunk Mountain too, a branch of the lower Shawangunks, also sacred to the Munsee.
The Algonquins knew that heavy rocks were older than light ones, and in fact this is true, as older rocks further down get compressed and then metamorphize into other kinds of rocks. He showed me that this piece was pure conglomerate, a matrix, whereas the milky “beta” quartzite would develop around it.
There were at least a hundred pounds of this conglomerate visible to the naked eye in the turtle. Even today it would take two people with a car an entire day of hard work to carry this much stone from its place of origin to this turtle. It would have taken many Native American people several days to accomplish it in the years before contact. But only the Native Americans would have had the motive for doing so. What exactly was this motive? We don’t know.
This rock only comes from across the river, which is Munsee territory. These are Munsee rocks!! Sam’s Point was some sort of Munsee United Nations Spot, according to my reconstruction theories; there is a council rock there on an abutment which is “an island in the sky” so to speak. That island of rock is covered with chunks of this kind of harder-than-quartz conglomerate, some of the oldest rock to surface. The significance is obviously great, but what does it mean? It has something to do with the creation of the earth and sky, the oldest rock, the oldest turtle…Junipers are ancient trees as well. .Ray said, “Yes! It’s a Ripley’s Puzzle!”
Ray said in Taino (Puerto Rico/Dominican Republic) tradition there is only water until Hurrican creates the turtle and it falls through a hole in the sky, and becomes North America, the first creature to bring mud up from the water. It is the helper through which God parted the waters.
I said maybe this was a sign that we should reunite the old Wappinger confederacy. He joked about how the only Wappingers speakers were either toothless or behind bars. I agreed. We had our work cut out for us, but I suggested it was up to the Wappingers to protect the turtle.
Jazzy Breezy New Paltz, Home of Shawangunk Conglomerate and Contested Gay Marriages
Ray and I did a plant walk together, identifying about a hundred usable herbs, and then got a little lost on the way out and ended up in a field filled with western prairie plants. It was like Nebraska. Then we walked along the road, and headed back to New Paltz, home of Shawangunk Conglomerate and Contested Gay Marriages, and sent Gay Ray home. I’m sure he went right off to bed. I ran into the young jazz bass player Lewis Greeney, with whom I have had several highly enjoyable conversations about renegade politics and spirituality. We talked about forming a jazz duo.sometime. He has my guitar CD already, but no jazz on there. As we talked, I thought I saw the young Mayor Jason West ride by on a bicycle. I yelled hi, but he didn’t hear me.
I went to Mc G’s and watched the Mets Yankee game on large screen, to celebrate July 4th, and had their bourbon chicken sandwich, which is what I always order there. There were lots of homerun fireworks. The Mets swept the Yanks, and the barmaid Sarah was practically in tears. It was hard for me as a Met fan to comfort her but I did my best. I was tactful and didn’t say, “Oh, yeah, the Yankees—Dick Cheney’s team. Screw ‘em!” I said, “It is a rather shocking upset!” (Nowhere have my peacemaking techniques come into more urgent use than while waffling on the edge of the great Met/Yankee rivalry!) I saw Mario Cuomo’s new book about Lincoln in the Ariel Book Store window. Too bad he’s not running for anything now, but at least he can still get published. I think he stood up for Scott Ritter during one of those exciting radio appearances in front of large audiences. Peacefile should still have my Scott Ritter transcriptions posted somewhere. He was the ex Marine officer, ex UN weapons inspector who said “WMD? What WMD?” and who by total coincidence got into trouble with the FBI over something that had no relation to WMD.
I walked alone along the Rail Trail which was looking particularly beautiful today. Then I went home to take a much needed post-jungle shower. I connected with Michael Picucci who wants to meet Monday at 10 AM for another creative brainstorming session for his new book on ritual in therapy. I agreed. I am hearing the fireworks in the distance as I write this; it is the first time in my life that I deliberately chose not to go see fireworks on July 4th. It is a non-verbal protest against the war. My invisible demonstration says “There are too many fireworks in Iraq. There were too many fireworks in Afghanistan. We don’t need any more fireworks, we need open discussion.”
The Angry Boar-Goddess at the Crossroads
Today in New Paltz I met a woman at the crossroads, the crossroads of Main Street and Cedar (or 32). Her name was not Ragnell, as in the Arthurian myth (mentioned in last Sunday’s blog) but Regina, and she was holding up a sign that said, “Be Patriotic, Vote NO to Bush” and there was a picture of Bush as Alfred E. Newman with a barr sign over his face. She was, like Ragnell, the wild boar woman/Goddess, challenging the King, ready to wound his thigh for not respecting the earth mother. I was walking into mythology itself. I said, “How long have you been sitting there with your arms up in the air holding that sign?” She said, “An hour and a half, and my arms hurt and I am thirsty. Could you babysit the sign for me and hold it up while I get a drink?” Happily, I agreed, and was there for a while, and people came and looked at my sign. She came back, very happy to see I was doing my job and I asked if she would agree to be mentioned in my peaceblog and she agreed. My Revolutionary July 4th deed for the day. I noticed an ad for an underground paper called The Shadow, but couldn’t find it. It seemed that the local media was stressing personal and social “independence” not knee-jerk patriotism this fourth of July. I heaved a sigh of relief each time I saw that. I think the Bush people have stockpiled enough patriotism to last through a good many ideological winters. I’m still hearing those “bombs bursting in air” outside, and just grateful you know who isn’t blowing up New York today the way his royal ancestors did in 1775.
Back at the Word Ranch, I listened carefully to the Chocolate Thai and Jubilee CD album, and liked it, but found the guitar a little out of tune and too much intentional distortion on the vocal tracks and not enough harmony. The lead guitar could be better. I wish I had to money to produce this CD. Chocolate is so talented! He was signed by Virgin and then Michael Jackson, but nothing came of it, more common a situation than most would believe. Live, there is plenty of harmony in their marvelous band, But it is still an important underground CD and Chocolate Thai and Jubilee is an important underground band for these times.
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