| The Tipi You are here! |
The Encampment | The Wilderness | The Mountains |
|---|---|---|---|
| SpiritWalker’s Poetry Update: 24 Sep 00 |
About
Apaches Update: 29 Jul 98 |
Survival
On Land Update: 1 Aug 98 |
Song on
the Midnight Wind Chapter 1 |
| SpiritWalker’s Fun Facts Update: 24 Sep 00 |
Traditional
Apache Story Update: original entry |
Survival
At Sea Update: original entry |
Song on the
Midnight Wind Chapter 2 |
| SpiritWalker’s
True-Life Adventures Update: 17 Feb 99 |
Geronimo's
Story Update: original entry |
Song on the
Midnight Wind Chapter 3 |
Walking the road to tomorrow, I put on yesterday’s shoes;
I wear today’s clothing and walk where I choose.
I find the promises of the future wrapped in the skin of the past;
But it’s the present I’m traveling that’s so extensive and vast.
I’ve tripped over boulders, I’ll climb over walls;
I fly with the eagles, through canyons and draws.
I was never a hero, I will never be a star;
I never walk quickly, I never walk far.
It’s the path I have traveled, it’s the one I will take;
It’s the road that I’m walking; it’s the choice that I make.
My ancestors spoke, my descendants will speak;
But, it’s the family around me whose comfort I seek.
I’ve seen things of wonder, I’ll see many more;
I see splendors about me and miracles galore.
My parents were wise, my children will be;
My siblings are loving and caring to me.
I look back on my failings, I look forward to success;
I look around for solutions and throw out the rest.
I’ve been mistaken before, I’ll be mistaken again;
But, it’s the mistake of not trying that’s truly a sin.
SpiritWalker, 2-22-2000
More of SpiritWalker’s
Poetry
I know what you’re thinking, but as
usual, I’ve put a little twist in the lesson again. Most computerites know that
the “RGB” in the title refers to “Red-Green-Blue” - the three colors that make
up all of the colors your monitor produces for you. That is correct, oh wise
sage of the terminal, however, I wish to address some of the odd ways that we
use Red, Green, and Blue to describe ideas that have nothing to do with the
actual colors.
Once, after cutting through the red
tape, I found I was chasing a red herring - it was not a red-letter day for me.
See what I mean? I just used the color red three times in one sentence and yet,
the actual color was completely irrelevant as far as you understanding what I
meant. Where did these phrases come from?
Charles Dickens and Thomas Carlyle
are responsible for popularizing the phrase “red tape.” English lawyers and
government officials had traditionally tied official papers together with
pieces of red ribbon, which they referred to as red tape. The irritating thing
to the men mentioned above was that these papers were again tied with the red
tape after each use, even if it was just to store the documents. Retrieving any
official papers required the elaborate procedure of untying and then retying
the red tape, a small but time-consuming inconvenience. Thus, “red tape” came
to represent the government’s exasperating tendency to prolong even the
simplest transaction.
Chasing the red herring saga, I found
that it is linked closely with another cliché, namely, “neither fish nor fowl.”
The original phrase was, “Neither fish, nor fowl, nor good red herring.” You
see, in the Middle Ages, it was believed that only the clergy were worthy to
eat fish. The masses had to settle for fowl and the poor were forced to settle
for red herring. Why red? Because it was dried in the sun or smoked so it would
keep longer in the age before refrigeration.
Hunters found another use for the
herring. They would smoke the herring with a strong odor and drag it behind
their horses to train young bloodhounds to follow a trail. Once the dog could
successfully follow the “red herring trail,” the pup was ready to trail a fox
for the hunters. This led to two other groups using the same method in a
different way. Criminals would also use the “red herring trail” to through off
the bloodhounds which were used to track their escape from justice. Animal
rights enthusiasts used the “red herring trail” to deceive the hounds on the
hunt. So, chasing the “red herring” became synonymous with following the wrong
trail - a trail of deception.
In the fifteenth century,
ecclesiastical calendars (and many calendars today, if you think about it)
designated religious holidays by printing them with red ink. In England,
saints’ days and feast days were printed in red in the calendar of the Book of
Common Prayers, indicating that special services were to be held on those days.
Soon, even Sundays became “red-letter days.” Therefore, a red-letter day is any
special day or particularly good day.
I know what you’re thinking (correct
me if I’m wrong), you’re thinking, “Wow! The knowledge you have pertaining to
those phrases would make the average greenhorn green with envy!” And I would
reply, “See, you did it again! Two more color references!”
Green has long been associated with
anything young. I suppose it’s because of the young, green sprout of a plant -
one that is just beginning to grow. But, why a greenhorn? John Cardi supplies
the only plausible theory to this one. When young deer grow horns, they are
covered by a delicate growth of skin. Greenish fungus spores tend to gather on
the skin, which make the skin appear green until the skin peels away and the
horns mature. Thus, a greenhorn is someone who is young and inexperienced - not
yet mature.
The ancient Greeks believed that
jealousy was accompanied by an overproduction of bile, lending a pallid green
cast to the victim’s face. Ovid, Chaucer, and Shakespeare freely used green to
denote jealousy or envy. Probably the most famous reference is Iago’s speech in
the 3rd Act of Othello:
I could also talk a blue streak about
blue jeans, but only once in a blue moon. There’s those color references again!
When you’re talking a mile-a-minute,
it is said that you are talking a blue streak. The “blue” reference here refers
to the blue sky from whence “streaks” of lightning emanate. Most people would
rather hear the thunder of lightning than the cacophony spewed by a human
talking a metaphoric blue streak.
Though most original blue jeans were,
in fact, blue, today they come in a variety of colors. They are still, however,
called blue jeans. The real key to the definition is in the word “jean” which
is a derivative of the name of the place of origin for the cotton material used
to make the garment - Genoa, Italy.
Denim is derived from the city
of Nimes, France and the material was originally called serge de Nimes.
Levi Strauss, a San Francisco
merchant during the Gold Rush days, added the familiar rivets that now proudly
grace the corners of our durable blue jeans.
The myth that the moon was made of
green cheese and the phrase “once in a blue moon” both appeared in the 16th
century. The rhyme by William Ray and J. Barlow is:
We all know that that is a bunch of
“baloney” and the original meaning of “once in a blue moon” was “never.” But,
even today some people insist that the moon sometimes appears to be blue; some
claim that on crystal-clear night, or on exceptionally foggy nights, or in
areas full of volcanic ash, the moon appears blue. With all of these “blue-moon
sightings,” the phrase has gradually shifted in time from meaning “never” to
“very rarely.”
Well, there you have it: Today is a
red-letter day for you green-with-envy greenhorns in blue jeans who, once in a
blue moon, stop chasing that red-herring trail, cut through the red tape and
make it to my web site to listen to me talk a blue streak about trivial
subjects. Well, I typed one anyway.
This has been
SpiritWalker. Thanks for reading!
Do you have an odd
subject you’d like me to write about? Or do you have a comment about this one?
If so, Email me at: NDN eagle@aol.com
My Favorite Links
Angelfire - Easiest Free Home Pages
Madeline Baker's
Home page
Odin's Castle of Dreams & Legends - The Best
Research Site on the Web
Clip Art Castle - Great Clipart Site!
Price Canyon dude ranch - A great place to get away in the Chiricahua Mountains!
The California Cowboys - An absolutely fantastic band in Northern California!
The Daily Republic - Catch the local news where I live!
Dorchester Publications - My publisher!
