July 17th, 2011

Another blog site, but working from a historical slant, oh but aren’t we all.

All my life it seems, I’ve been a keen observer of my environment and people and have been filling up notebooks since my teens, in the early seventies and have progressed from writing lyrical poetry, to short stories and a novel in my Hemingway stage, to reading and researching about things, before religion. Each year of my life I feel I have always, hopefully, progressed in trying to understand ones spiritually, especially with it being torn in so many directions by so many variables at so many different times. But I find that when I’m in the mode, researching, reading, and writing a project or two, and most importantly listening, discussing and conversing with others, along with the life one leads and the discipline that is needed to write, it is a place where I’m supposed to be.

Inquisitive Narratives was developed initially, for putting out there, some essays I’ve written over the past few years. They are historical in nature, with most all information used, as up to date as possible. And have been written and put together to hopefully try to understand today and perhaps tomorrow. All information used, read and researched within each essay is listed in Resource Material & Bibliography under “Research”. But the blog will also include collections of poetry, opinion and observations of life and society, comments on what is currently being read or researched, or just something that I’ve an urge to share.

Much of the focus, the gist of many of the essays, is concerned with pre-history. It’s been over ten thousand years since we humans developed agriculture, just after the end of the last ice age. The first five thousand or so years after we began to grow our food were the beginnings of human civilization. This time is classically termed pre-history. The next thirty-seven hundred years represents ancient history. While the last fourteen hundred years are medieval and modern history. And though we might not always want to admit it, from the development of agriculture, 10,000 years ago, to the industrial revolution about  150 years ago, the human world stayed basically much the same. Indeed, even since the discovery of fire, intellectually, morally and socially we really haven’t changed all that much. The beginnings of human civilization was all about the question “How”?, as in how to do things. We then progressed through ancient history, when we began to seek knowledge and try to understand the world and we began to ask “Why”?

To study history is not to try to understand and focus on its timeline so much, but to perhaps look for models for our behavior today. To read about people, who through time have asked “Why”? Not necessarily looking for anything out of curiosity, or for how many times we’ve repeated our mistakes, or looking for all the examples of us imitating those who came before. Instead we should study history to strengthen the identity of our multi-cultured societies of today, whatever our biological backgrounds. To study our spiritual ancestors and what they came up with, though sometimes being so very different from our views today, and allow what already has been learned to impel us forward and ourselves continuing to ask “Why”?  We must also be objective, which is unfortunately very hard to do because of the realities of our daily lives. Too many of us cannot consistently be objective towards history and its lessons for the simple fact that we have our own lives to live. As well as, unfortunately, too many of us are far too prejudice about ourselves and others to be objective about the past.

Human civilization is progressing at a very rapid pace. So many have worked so hard over the millenia to create common decency in our societies, but along with rapid technological advances, societal ills have just as rapidly progressed. Many of these extremely negative trends of our society are nearly out of human control. But then most of us go through our daily lives without a thought for anything other than sex or food. Our values that have been handed down over the eons, of which many are inherent within us, are being buried under a blanket of selfishness. We must start being accountable for our own actions instead of thinking that it is always someone else’s fault.

As for, never-fulfilling materialism, been there done that and have become a simple, listening man, just trying to get by each day, and somehow making it count. I’d like to spend the rest of my days, living my passion which is firstly to read and research, secondly to write, and finally to share. To achieve that one moment when a fellow human reads something I’ve produced and they see something in their own lives in perhaps a different light, and reflect and perhaps even getting some pleasure or enlightenment on some level or maybe someone just simply breaking free for a moment from one’s daily life of routine. Though reality will also dictate that a few will read and might get their hairs up, and even become angry, where their comments are vile and ignorant. As far as comments goes, I will delete the ignorant, but share the instructive criticisms.

I am not an educated man. I am over fifty and have spent nearly twenty years of it as a commercial diver. As for the rest of my resume it reads like a Louis L’amour resume on the back page of one of his paperbacks. Been around the block sort of thing and confident enough to still have empathy, to forgive, to look at a fellow human and not see color, and to realize that we are all simply trying to do our best and that we’ll never know everything, because we don’t need to. But what we do know should be real, the truth.

If you are still reading, I thank you and welcome you. Peace .

Joe Peters

“You need perspective to see the truth in things.”  The book of
Jeremiah, chapter 29, verse 11.