Wednesday, September 26, 2007

What would happen if we were to make some small effort to remember our roots...

text, texture, context from:
[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin textra, from textus, past participle of texere, to weave.]

technology from:
[Greek tekhnologia, systematic treatment of an art or craft : tekhne, skill; see teks- in Indo-European roots + -logia, -logy.]

Also, from An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language By Walter William Skeat 1893
TAK, to prepare. See Curtius, i. 271, who gives the three main meanings of the root as 'generate,' 'hit,' and 'prepare,' and adds: 1 The root is one of the oldest applied to any kind of occupation, without any clearly defined distinction, so that we must not be astonished if we meet the weaver [Lat. tex-tor] in company with the carpenter [Skt. tatsh-an].
It was reported by anthropologists studying Borneo that there was a particular butterfly that the natives associated with the approach of the wild boar. When those natives had moved to the city for a time as brief as three weeks, they could no longer identify the butterfly.

Human knowledge is fragile. The mind clears itself to make way for new things. Modern technology in contrast to its roots is designed to erase the need for development of human skill and attention. But at the core of our humanity is the need to weave, craft, create and grow, to become expressed in text and in texture and in the gardens of the earth.

Roots anchor us to the earth, to our origins, and give indication of the vector of human development. But we are a world of cultures adrift and in states of collision, torn from deep roots. To create peace requires that we remember, dig deep and restore... for the nautical buffs among us... all hands on deck.

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