Just what's on my mind today....

This post is actually a little random (and a little long). It's going to be about two totally separate topics, but it's what's on my mind this afternoon, and as previously mentioned this blog is really about nothing overall. So whatever, we're just going to go with the randomness.... here's what's up....

I just got back from Liberty this morning. I'll probably post a lot about this place, at least for a while because I've only been volunteering there for a couple of months. It's still new and exciting to me. Here's what I was thinking about this morning: I never knew I was an animal person until recently. Really. Until about a couple of years ago, I would actually have said "I'm not really an animal person" and the reason is I'm not big on domesticated animals. I've never really liked cats or dogs. And I still don't, actually. But as it turns out I LOVE wild animals. This kind of snuck up on me and has come as a little bit of a surprise. A little backstory (because this is what brought me to voluteering with animals): about a year ago I was doing that thing that most students do, switching majors a million times, doing my general studies but not really knowing what the heck I was going to do with it. Then one night, super late at night, I was at home with my hubby watching an animal show on PBS. It was about penguins, and it showed animal researchers that had been on a long research study with this one particular colony of penguins. They were tagging them and talking about what they've learned about this species throughout their studies. I was so into this show and I started to realize how often I watch those types of shows and how much I really love learning about animal behavior, so I thought, what the heck. I'll major in biology, emphasis is zoology, and even if I don't work in that field, a biology degree will hopefully be pretty marketable. At least I'll enjoy what I'm studying. So then (more recently) I start volunteering at Liberty and find that besides my husband and family, these animals are like the best thing in my world. I really am truly an animal lover. Who knew!? (I'm thinking as time goes on I'll learn to love cats and dogs more too, even though I'm not crazy about them right now) ... you know, as kids we learn and grow so so much but we don't really realize that's what's going on. I've really found that as I get older I enjoy the fact that I'm learning and growing but I have the self awareness to step back and say "wow, I know more about myself and my world today than I did yesterday"... and I'm still so young. I hope that feeling never goes away. I never want to feel like I know all there is to know, even when it comes to just knowing me. Who I am and what I like (which I know will change with time)... So anyway, point of this whole story is that here I am, self described "not an animal person" and it turns out I actually am... I probably always loved animals I just didn't really know it. Weird thing to not realize about yourself, but whatever. It is what it is.

And here's the second part of this post (totally not related to the above topic, at all)

One of the classes I'm taking right now is world mythology and I was reading something in my textbook the other day that I find really interesting and worth sharing. So this is an exact excerpt from this textbook, "World Mythology: The Illustrated Guide" Edited by Roy Willis (Talking about Hawaiian mythology)

"The Hawaiian year was marked by the alteration of the ritual cycles of the god Ku and the god Lono... It has been suggested by some scholars that the Lono myth was behind the death of the English navigator Captain James Cook, who was the first European to visit the Hawaiian islands. Cook arrived off the islands in November 1778, just as Lono's circuit was due to begin, and circumnavigated Hawaii island in a clockwise direction. The Hawaiians assumed that this year Lono had come in person, and when Cook came ashore at Kealakekua he was immediately escorted to the main temple of Lono. Cook went along with his hosts' efforts to teach him certain ritual responses, unaware that they represented the words of Lono and confirmed the belief that he was the god. When Lono was due to 'die' and depart from Kahiki, the chiefs were reassured when Cook expressed that his departure was imminent. However, shortly after leaving, Cook decided to return to Kealakekua to repair one of his ships. He arrived on February 11, 1779, to find the Hawaiians first bewildered, then angry and abusive, because Lono was supposed to be dead. One hundred chiefs, all anxious to ensure that their god died as he should do, killed 'Lono' with the iron daggers that he had given them just a few months earlier."

I'm not really sure what to take from this story, but I find it really compelling for some reason. That is like the ultimate case of misunderstanding. I want to learn more about this. This is only one little clip from one textbook, and it kind of sounds like this might be a controversial theory so I don't think I can take it as total truth, but I'd like to know more about it. I want to find out where the evidence for this theory comes from. I'll do more research about it so you might see updates on this at some later date... when I learn things that I think are interesting I tend to want to share them. The good thing about this format of sharing is that if you don't think it's interesting you don't have to read it :) ... Anyway, if anyone has anything to add to this or knows more about it, let me know. I'd be interested to hear other points of view on it or reactions to this odd little story.

Ok. That's it. Just what's on my mind today :)