Volume XVII, Issue I
Josiah
By Bob Kirchman
Copyright © 2019, The Kirchman Studio, all rights reserved
Chapter 13: Intreat Me Not to Leave Thee
West concluded the meeting saying “You must think it over. We must know that this is something you do of your OWN volition. We have reached out to those who might be your fellow crewmen. Of course, they and you are sworn to secrecy. Just think, if the news media in the ‘Lower 48’ get a hold of this, they’ll start making all sorts of statements and demands. You know how they love to paint the Alaska Republic as a ‘cold and uncaring’ entity. Even though APOLLONIUS destroyed his own colony, they’ll make us the villains. They’ll accuse us of marooning the settlers there. There will be any number of ‘conspiracy theories.’”
I… must pray, and let you know then.”
In the days that followed, Josiah Zimmerman sought the continued counsel of Greene and Ben-Gurion, who for their part, happily gave him all the time he needed. Of course, he wanted the adventure, and the purpose of the mission. What would his parents think? What about his fiancé, Adila? He understood the secrecy and its necessity, but he didn’t even know who he was crewing with. In the Twenty-first Century such commitment to the unknown was rare to ask of anyone. It was something out of another time. So Josiah Zimmerman screwed up his nerve and sought out Dr. Greene, spilling his fears and concerns. The good doctor said little, but said he’d arrange a meeting soon to help him through this.
A week or so later, Greene sent a message that Josiah should come to the chapel office that afternoon at 2:00pm, Big Diomede Time. The young man arrived freshly showered and somewhat out of breath. He was surprised to see his parents and Adila there! With them were Sarah and Abiyah Ben-Gurion and their son Adam. “We are the first three people to set foot on Mars.” Abiyah said, and he went on to explain that Greene was not going to be there as he had a granddaughter’s dance recital to go to that afternoon. “Besides, he told me he’s pretty much out of advice for you anyway. He WILL be present to counsel you about another step you might take in life – one that I think will come up in the discussion this afternoon.”
Ben-Gurion continued “I’ve invited Adila’s parents to this meeting as well. I think you know Sarah and my story. The secret marriage and all – and you know how Adam was already with us when we set foot on Mars. Sarah touched the planet slightly before me, but that is for the historians to sort out. In the Guiness Book of World Records, we’re tied at the moment. Since Adila is fluent in five languages and aerospace studies as well, she was also a logical choice for this mission.”
Since our mission,” Sarah chimed in, “Mission Control has written stricter policies about things such as our ‘secret marriage,’ if you get my drift. But, since you have already made it quite clear that you are committed to each other, we just want to make sure you know that you need not decide without the benefit of blessing. And we sure do not want you deciding in the dark without input from those who love you.”
Adila spoke next: “Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God: Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the LORD do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me.” – the words of Ruth to Naomi, but also much referenced in marital loyalty as well.
The two of them would follow in the footsteps of Abiyah and Sarah. They set to work planning their wedding.
Chapter 14: Unto All Nations
The next few weeks were a whirlwind of activity as Big Diomede readied for the celebration! The little chapel on the island always seemed happiest when it rejoiced with the bride and bridegroom and Mrs. Greene spared nothing in decorating it. But all the while they wondered – who was third on their crew? Both were well trained in the work of spaceflight and balanced simulator time with getting fitted for wedding clothes. Abiyah Ben-Gurion was suspected, but he was getting older and didn’t visit the simulator rooms much anymore. He was, many people noted, taking lots of long walks with Adam now.
Adam had followed in the footsteps of his capable parents and was a great pilot in his own right. He was a loner like his dad had been and everyone assumed he must like it that way. He did seem to have a lot to discuss with dad these days. Was his dad in fact going back to Mars? He still passed the physical – with a few ‘look the other ways’ by the flight surgeons.
We’ll never know for sure, but if the truth be known, I doubt it was clear who would go; Abiyah or Adam, as they talked it out but clearly the father felt some responsibility for the colony and the son loved his father. He had rebelled some as a youth but he now saw how wonderful his upbringing had been. The virtue of gratitude – the only virtue Abiyah would lay claim to, had been passed from father to son!
Though the older Ben-Gurion was methodical in his attempts to discourage his son, he was also quite proud of him. In the end, it was Adam who begged his father for the chance to complete the work that he had begun. Sarah and Abiyah, of all people, were uniquely able to understand the drive of their son. Since they knew Josiah, Adila and Adam quite closely, seeing them work together at school, they saw a team that was every bit as capable as the team of Cohen – Ben-Gurion decades before them. Now they congregated frequently at the Ben-Gurion home for meals and conversation.
After the wedding, the three began training for the mission in dead earnest. All three of them expressed some disappointment that meeting the best launch window meant missing the World’s Fair in Fairgate, but that was a small concern. The Martians were waiting. Josiah and Adila also sought out the company of the Greenes and over macaroni and cheese, they discussed such things as the journeys of Paul in the First Century. Surely they were following in his footsteps. “What constitutes a nation in the eyes of the Divine?” Dr. Greene asked his pupil and his pupil’s wife as they supped together.
The dictionary says, ‘a large aggregate of people united by common descent, history, culture, or language, inhabiting a particular country or territory.’” Responded Josiah.
Josiah
By Bob Kirchman
Copyright © 2018, The Kirchman Studio, all rights reserved
Epilogue: The Bridge of God
For decades it had simply been known as ‘The Great Mystery’ by the colonists. Indeed it was a wonder to them that the opening existed at all. Upon landing, the colonists had discovered the opening that gave entry into the little valley. The fine soil and natural protection had led them to place a substantial part of their greenhouse agriculture in that valley. That was why the colonists survived. Josiah the colonist and Josiah Zimmerman walked through the arch one afternoon in their spacesuits. Josiah the colonist told the story as they stared up at the 90’ wide archway that rose 215’ above them. Young Zimmerman found the whole scene strangely familiar.
Really, this looks just like a place I remember from my boyhood,” young Josiah mused. “It is the spitting image of the Natural Bridge in Rockbridge County. My grandfather would take me there. We would stand under the arch and look up at it. He would whisper “MOHOMONY.” That is what the Monacan Nation called it and it was a sacred place to their people. The name was alternately translated ‘Great Mystery’ or ‘The Bridge of God.’
The Monacans were a Souix people who lived in the Valley of Virginia. Once a band of Monacans were being pursued by a much larger army of Powhatans and in their distress they prayed. They had been pressed to the edge of a deep chasm, the valley of Cedar Creek. Escape was impossible. But looking up they saw the natural bridge that spanned the chasm. They hurried their women and children across it. Now the warriors turned and faced their enemy on the narrow bridge. The larger Powhatan force was reduced by the width of the bridge and that day the Monacans prevailed.” Grandfather never tired of telling that tale.
When the unmanned lander had sent its rover through the arch, no one thought to pan the camera up. It remained a secret until the relief shuttle crew walked through it.
Josiah Zimmerman thought of the Virginia colonists and how they had discovered a bend on the James River that looked just like the bend in the Thames River at a place called Richmond. Thus the capital of the new place took its name from its similarity to a place familiar. Here in a faraway and forbidding place was a scene familiar as well – and even more amazing, it too played in a story of Divine deliverance. In the times to come, it too would become known as ‘MOHOMONY.’
Then Joshua called the twelve men, whom he had prepared of the children of Israel, out of every tribe a man: And Joshua said unto them, Pass over before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of Jordan, and take you up every man of you a stone upon his shoulder, according unto the number of the tribes of the children of Israel: That this may be a sign among you, that when your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean ye by these stones? Then ye shall answer them, That the waters of Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord; when it passed over Jordan, the waters of Jordan were cut off: and these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel for ever. And the children of Israel did so as Joshua commanded, and took up twelve stones out of the midst of Jordan, as the Lord spake unto Joshua, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel, and carried them over with them unto the place where they lodged, and laid them down there. And Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests which bare the ark of the covenant stood: and they are there unto this day.” – Joshua 4:4-9
THE END
The HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter took an image of a thin channel, and a portion of it contains a naturally occurring bridge over the chasm. Kelly Kolb from the HiRISE team says it is probably a remnant of the original surface, the rest of which has collapsed downward. NASA Photo.
Hacking the Program
A True Commencement Message
I have a cousin who went to Virginia Military Institute and graduated from the school. Today she is a commercial pilot. But here we will consider her experience at VMI. When she arrived on campus and joined the ‘rat line,’ she was subjected to the same physical exertion, mental and verbal abuse and general torture that first year students at that great school all endure. It is how she handled it that is instructive. She admitted to my uncle that she had a unique coping strategy. She made a game of it. As many of her fellow rats grew discouraged and packed it in, my cousin doubled down on her resolve. Later she confessed that at the end the hardest thing for her was to keep from laughing.
You see, she knew she needed to obtain knowledge and develop skills for her future life. Discipline was essential for this. She also knew that there was entwined in every institution of value a lot of culture and stress best left ignored. And so, as many high school students enjoy their Summer in anticipation of careers or further education towards careers, It is well to consider a few points.
Your True Education Began Long Ago
Do you remember when your Mom taught you to speak? Do you remember when Dad taught you how to build a birdhouse? Those are just the most observable lessons. You also learned some core values and how to work from your family. You also learned from them how to live. They may have led you into your Faith. These things are foundational to who you are. Oh yes, you will likely test the limits, but remember that there are good reasons behind them. Be suspicious of any university person who diminishes their value and importance.
Your Education Does Not End with a Degree
It is not possible to become a true ‘Master’ in four or five years. That will take much longer. Methodology will change. Ideas will change. You will change. Here it is important to learn how to discern Objective Truth from Subjective Truth. Yes, there really are things that don’t change. A rock released from the hand will always experience the effects of gravity. It will never fly away from the planet! When you apprehend an Objective Truth, let it comfort you. Don’t succumb to the intellectually lazy path of relativism!
Your Intuition is Valuable
You must always nurture your ability to “go to the source.” When someone tells you “the Bible says thus and so,” it is a necessary skill to be able to study for yourself. It is okay to disagree with ‘experts.’ It is okay to ask them hard questions. It is okay to use your imagination sometimes. When my Dad was in engineering school at Notre Dame, his professor stated with great authority that the atom could never be smashed. Ironically the physics department at Notre Dame had just built a machine for smashing atoms! Someone had imagined it could be done! Still, the teacher in the classroom promoted the now inaccurate idea that this was not possible.
Finally, it is well to learn the difference between constructive criticism and – well, just criticism. There is a lot of negativity around us in the world and it is quite possible your brilliant foray into the world of imagination will simply meet with a professor’s bad day. You won’t know that he fought with his wife that morning and nothing looks good to him right now. Never take input personally. It really isn’t about you anyway. The criticism you need to listen to comes with a genuine desire to see you get better at something. There will be the suggestion of a better way of doing it – or at least ANOTHER way. It may work for you, it may not. There may be the revelation of some true oversight on your part which might lead to unintended consequences. In any case, your critic will have the patience to explain. The goal of such criticism will be thought, clearly not aggravation. Thus you can sort out input rather quickly into that which is useful in your development and what is not. You can develop a thick skin and true sensitivity at the same time and both will serve you well.
Sometimes it will serve you well to try the suggested way in a class and then return to your method later if your intuition tells you to do so. There are atoms waiting to be split!
Commencement means ‘beginning.’ A true commencement message should become the prelude to learning, not the postscript so often delivered by celebrities or politicians. In the end, I’d rather simply hear ‘Nice Job,’ or something like that as I move to the challenges ahead.
It's Time to Refound Our Universities
They've Strayed from the Noble Purposes of their Founders
Jefferson's Rotunda, the center of his 'Academic Village.' Photo by Rufus Holsinger.
Did you know that Hamas enjoys more positive praise on some of our college campuses than it does on the West Bank? Just ask Khaled Abu Toameh, an Arab Muslim with Israeli citizenship who used to be with the Palestinian media but chose to move to the Israeli press where he was free to speak what was on his heart.
Toameh has observed a 'Pro Palestinian Junta' taking place on U.S. campuses as Middle-Eastern studies professors promote a pretty one-sided picture of a complex situation.
There is a problem here. Most of the kids attending 'Code Pink' antiwar presentations have never been to Israel and are swayed by the speech of people who conveniently ignore the nature of jihad and the refusal of Palestinian spokesmen to recognize Israel's right to exist. Playing on sympathy for the victims of this situation, they ignore the reality that many Hamas policies have continued the harm. They forget that the pullout from Gaza left the people there with beautiful greenhouses and the possibility of taking part in the 'miracle' agriculture that the region had enjoyed under Jewish control. The Palestinians trashed the facilities, shot rockets at Sderot and chose instead to live supplied through tunnels from Egypt.
Years ago, my sister-in-law was a young idealist who chose to go live with the Sandinistas for a bit, obviously inspired by some academic. Problem was when you actually got there you saw that the Sandinistas were not such idealists at all.
May I make the controversial statement that $20,000 a year is a bit much to be paying for such indoctrination.
Guardians of the Gate
Why do they get away with it? There is only one reason. They are the 'guardians of the gate' to a number of important and well paying careers. The computer revolution has begun to chip away at that as many young people have been able to bypass the four or five year path that was traditionally perscribed for success. That is not a bad thing, howls about lacking "well roundedness" aside.
In the Seventeenth Century colleges were founded in this land to train well read leaders and reach the Native population with the Gospel. That's why Dartmouth and William and Mary have Indians as mascots. A gentleman such as Thomas Jefferson was schooled in practical arts, such as Architecture, along with his Classical education.
Fast forward to the Twenty-first Century. Western Civilization has been effectively eliminated from the curriculum. Beauty and truth have been reduced to relative terms. They still exist, but not at the academy.
A Modest Proposal
Every year large corporations hire the graduates of such prestigious institutions and then lament that they are then required to actually train them for the work! To add insult to injury, they are cooerced through alumni associations and endowments to pony up to maintain the status quo.
Here is the modest proposal. Industry and medicine need to reinstate the apprenticeship system of old and take the money they are throwing into a failed system to found their own institutes of Art, Architecture, Engineering, Medicine [yes, Medicine]! Hospitals need to own and operate the training of physicians.
Building upon the existing Community College system, they can provide the well-rounded education that Seventeenth Century students received. Prolonged adolescence would be replaced by a productive young adulthood and knowledge would be acquired over a lifetime instead of in a four year attempt to "force feed" young people who are frankly more interested in other things.
Citizens would pursue continuing education in their field and also in arts and letters. My own Father is my perfect man as a model of the Citizen-Scholar. He barely made it through high school and his advisor wrote a letter saying that he could not recommend that my Father pursue Engineering as a career. Dad went to a junior college for a year before applying to Notre Dame where he did indeed pursue his Engineering degree. Upon graduation he went to Wright doing structural analysis on aircraft. Eventually he ended up at the Martin Company in Baltimore doing structural analysis on the seaplanes used in the Pacific Theatre during WWII.
He married his chief number cruncher and eventually left Martin to start his own lab. He had one of those shop/garage units that plumbing contractors rent and he built shock and vibration test equipment in there. Eventually he was hired to write the test procedures for NASA. He became a department head there, having created a lot of the quality assurance methodology for spacecraft. Wernher von Braun tapped him to become part of the group that developed the testing procedures.
But I've digressed. In Dad's day they really did train Engineers who couldn't read and Liberal Arts Scholars who couldn't count. Dad slowly aquired a magnificent library and schooled himself in letters. He read all the noble works of Western literature and probably could have taught the courses! He was equally at home reading Plato or dissecting a roto-tiller. My complete man!
When I was twelve, he said "build me a greenhouse" and offered more moral support than knowledge as I did my own research and drew plans for the thing. He gave me a budget and helped me place the rafters. When I secured a good price for a set of old storm windows I think he was pleased. The redwood structure didn't succumb to termites until Reagan was president.
Thomas Jefferson designed this addition to Farmington as well as Monticello and the University of Virginia.
Live Oak, Wilmington, NC
Photos by Bob Kirchman
House, Wilmington, NC
Photo by Bob Kirchman
The Declaration of Independence
Reading at Frontier Culture Museum
Ray Wright reads the Declaration of Independence at the American Frontier Culture Museum, Staunton, Virginia.
Read the Declaration of Independence Full Text [click to read] here. Also read What to the Slave is the Fourth of July [click to read] by Frederick Douglass in which he expounds on the principles put forth in the Declaration.
This, for the purpose of this celebration, is the 4th of July. It is the birthday of your National Independence, and of your political freedom. This, to you, is what the Passover was to the emancipated people of God. It carries your minds back to the day, and to the act of your great deliverance; and to the signs, and to the wonders, associated with that act, and that day. This celebration also marks the beginning of another year of your national life; and reminds you that the Republic of America is now 76 years old. I am glad, fellow-citizens, that your nation is so young. Seventy-six years, though a good old age for a man, is but a mere speck in the life of a nation. Three score years and ten is the allotted time for individual men; but nations number their years by thousands. According to this fact, you are, even now, only in the beginning of your national career, still lingering in the period of childhood. I repeat, I am glad this is so. There is hope in the thought, and hope is much needed, under the dark clouds which lower above the horizon. The eye of the reformer is met with angry flashes, portending disastrous times; but his heart may well beat lighter at the thought that America is young, and that she is still in the impressible stage of her existence. May he not hope that high lessons of wisdom, of justice and of truth, will yet give direction to her destiny? Were the nation older, the patriot’s heart might be sadder, and the reformer’s brow heavier. Its future might be shrouded in gloom, and the hope of its prophets go out in sorrow. There is consolation in the thought that America is young. Great streams are not easily turned from channels, worn deep in the course of ages. They may sometimes rise in quiet and stately majesty, and inundate the land, refreshing and fertilizing the earth with their mysterious properties.” – Frederick Douglass
Allow me to say, in conclusion, notwithstanding the dark picture I have this day presented of the state of the nation, I do not despair of this country. There are forces in operation, which must inevitably work the downfall of slavery. “The arm of the Lord is not shortened,” and the doom of slavery is certain. I, therefore, leave off where I began, with hope. While drawing encouragement from the Declaration of Independence, the great principles it contains, and the genius of American Institutions, my spirit is also cheered by the obvious tendencies of the age. Nations do not now stand in the same relation to each other that they did ages ago. No nation can now shut itself up from the surrounding world, and trot round in the same old path of its fathers without interference. The time was when such could be done. Long established customs of hurtful character could formerly fence themselves in, and do their evil work with social impunity. Knowledge was then confined and enjoyed by the privileged few, and the multitude walked on in mental darkness. But a change has now come over the affairs of mankind. Walled cities and empires have become unfashionable. The arm of commerce has borne away the gates of the strong city. Intelligence is penetrating the darkest corners of the globe. It makes its pathway over and under the sea, as well as on the earth. Wind, steam, and lightning are its chartered agents. Oceans no longer divide, but link nations together. From Boston to London is now a holiday excursion. Space is comparatively annihilated. Thoughts expressed on one side of the Atlantic, are distinctly heard on the other. The far off and almost fabulous Pacific rolls in grandeur at our feet. The Celestial Empire, the mystery of ages, is being solved. The fiat of the Almighty, “Let there be Light,” has not yet spent its force. No abuse, no outrage whether in taste, sport or avarice, can now hide itself from the all-pervading light.” – Frederick Douglass
Americans Who Risked Everything
Sweatshops Behind the Swoosh
A Real Reason to be 'Offended'
“Believe in something.” – Jim Keady Does. [1.][2.]
Hollyhocks at the Museum
Photos by Bob Kirchman
Beautiful hollyhocks at the American Frontier Culture Museum, Staunton, Virginia.
Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin
The First Humans on the Moon
Neil Armstrong is reflected in the visor of Buzz Aldrin, the first two humans to walk on the moon. Scratchboard, 12" x 12" by Bob Kirchman.
Next week THYME Magazine celebrates our journey to the moon fifty years ago. Special edition!
