I Wanna Be Elected!

The United Kingdom recently held their elections.  How many of you colonists even heard about it?  They have 6 weeks to campaign compared to our 2 years plus.  There's a lot we can learn from the electoral system in the UK as compared to ours...especially in regards to time and money spent.

Read American v British elections           Read BBC News Election Live

Best of all, they just go at it face to face, even when sitting in Parliament, as an example in the video below of PM David Cameron taking a jab at the opposition.

As Sir Dayvd from Oxford so eloquently stated, "I give Cameron his due...he is a past master of the Oxford Union debating society...and also they are pretty much trained in gracious insulting at Eton."

If only our conservatives where trained in gracious insulting instead of mindless blather.

Ah, this errant Knight wishes for the day he too can only have 6 weeks to listen to professional politicians and vote at his local Pub while drinking a quality Ale!

Sir Hook "The Drunken Dem and Gracious Insulter" of Warrick

I Pulled A Rabbit Out Of A Saviors Crown Of Thorns

As a child I looked forward to getting that Easter Basket full of candy.  Nothing better than a gift, especially candy, when you're a child.  All that candy gave me the energy to survive having to dress "special" for church, set through an extra long worship service, and eat with family members you might only see once a year, often ending in arguments on religious teachings.

Children across the globe have no choice but to absorb the culture and teachings pounded into them.  They absorb them like a sponge.  The Christian vs. Muslim conflict we know today is the result of that.  So as a child, I believed in the Easter Bunny and the Resurrection of Jesus Christ with that sublime blind faith on the same day.  It was magic!  I pulled a rabbit out of a saviors crown of thorns.

As my rebellious teen years set in...and not one to shy away from controversy, I began to question everything I was taught about religion.  Questioning is the first order of learning.  A gift that keeps on giving, whether that would be more knowledge, a black eye...or more than likely both.  By the end of my teens I didn't believe in the Easter Bunny or cared much for the strict religion taught at my church.

My college years began to open doors to a freedom of thought I never experienced before. Different ideas, different religions, different races and cultures, far removed from that small Southern Illinois community that formed me as a child. I once again opened up my mind and soaked in all that knowledge like a sponge. Then came the mother of all classes to fulfill my history minor...the History of World Religions.

I was floored to learn the similarities between ancient (which many call Pagan) and modern religions, the plundering of ideas and theologies from one to the other.  I began to see religion as both totally useless and the fulfillment of human desire since the beginning of time.  I began to see the common thread that united them all.  I began to see how religion is used to control others, or as a way to free the seeker on his spiritual journey through life. I became like a Pulsar, bouncing from one extreme to the other...almost ready to explode as I assimilated the facts learned in the class with the ideology I was taught during my first 18 years on the planet. That began a period where I made reason over faith my religion.  Factual knowledge, based on historical evidence.

Here are just a few facts about pulling a rabbit out of a saviors crown of thorns:

1. All major religious celebrations are rooted in the astronomical calendar, and have been borrowed and modified for literally thousands of years be succeeding civilizations.
2. Zoroastrianism, teaching "One God" of the ancient Babylonians, and the battle between good and evil, became the basis of the Judeo-Christian and Islamic theologies that we know today.
3. In 325AD the Council of Nicaea of the Roman Catholic church, incorporating an already established Pagan spring festival calendar, established that Easter would be held on the first Sunday after the first full moon occurring on or after the vernal equinox.  From that point forward, the Easter date depended on the ecclesiastical approximation of March 21 for the vernal equinox.  Therefore, Easter is never on the same date, or even month from year to year.
4. The story of Easter is as much rooted in paganism as it is in Christianity. The holiday owes its name to Eostra, the Germanic goddess of spring and fertility.  The egg and the rabbit symbolized the coming of new life and fertility. 
5.  An Easter Bunny character first hopped up in the 8th century. Legends featuring bunny imagery associated to Easter continued to be written down in 1500s Germany and the first story about a rabbit hiding eggs in a garden was published in 1680. As many Southwestern German immigrants settled in America, the Easter Bunny lived on in Pennsylvania Dutch tales of the Bunny as the "Oschter Haws," where Germantown children were gifted with eggs in their Easter bonnets that, today, are replaced by Easter baskets filled with candy and toys. 
6. Egg decorating is at least a 60,000 year old activity, practiced by the likes of Egyptians, Persians, Greeks and Kalahari Bushmen, who engraved ostrich eggs. Before giving colored eggs found its way into the modern Christian tradition, early Mesopotamian Christians dyed eggs red to symbolize the blood shed by Christ during his crucifixion.

I realize now that diversity of ideas and theologies are indeed united in our raw human need: 

• To express what we cannot comprehend
• To give thanks for what we have been given to survive on this planet
• To join together as a community with a common cause.  

This day after Easter I am reminded of my college history professor saying, "It's a terrible thing to be young and stupid." I'm also reminded of what my priest said at Mass yesterday, "Easter is not about focusing on a life after death or the miracle of the cross, it's about giving us hope to focus on living life to it's fullest right now."

I realize that reason and faith can coexist, that humanity and divinity are one, that we are all united through our diversity.

I am resurrected every day...every moment...every opportunity to connect and engage the world around me.  I am unified with all the living souls who have lived before, during, and after my brief existence here.  I smile as I see children grabbing their Easter Baskets and begin their journey of discovery just I did those many years ago.

Sir Hook "The Divine in Progress" of Warrick

Green Eggs and Scams

It seems that each week the need for diversity to save humanity becomes a stronger thread in the world's dialogue.  I have been contemplating writing about Cruz coming out for President, and then Pence trumps him with a stunning trip to the dark ages.  Being an Indiana resident, albeit liberal yet still trying to see hope in my Republican Party (thinking Independent in 2016), I long for a strong moderate voice in this Wilderness of Doom.  I want this country to grow, not decay.  Therefore, giving credit to Ted Cruz for his filibuster idea, I give you the story of.....

GREEN EGGS and SCAMS

Sir Hook "The Disgusted" of Warrick

Kiss Me...I'm Human!

Obviously, today is Saint Patrick's Day.  A day when everyone wishes to be Irish.  It's easy, just put on some green, where a leprechaun hat, and drink till you sound like one.

Funny, I remember as a kid, being raised in a non-alcohol - WASP home, the deep desire to know what it would be like to be Irish.  I ended up marrying a second generation New York Irish lass, who showed me the ins and outs, as well as the ups and downs, of being raised in an Irish Catholic home.

Then came my need to find roots in my family ancestral records.  I even did a DNA test, and low and behold what did I discover?  I'm freakin' Irish!  Not much, mind ya, but enough to wear the "kiss me pin" without shame, or being named Seamus.

Here's how the story goes (without getting into which sea creature or monkey I came from, but as far as human records can go):

My oldest blood roots are Roman, Scandinavian, Germanic, and Cherokee.  The Romans married into the Germans and became Franks...the Germans and the Britons married becoming Anglo/Saxon...the Vikings settled in Scotland and Ireland blending with the locals to become Scots and Irish...the Vikings at the same time mingled with the Franks and became Normans...the Normans marry the Anglo/Saxons and become English.  The Cherokee remained untouched.

Now at this point I have Scottish and English family members fighting each other, Irish and English ancestors fighting each other...and Cherokee family members waiting for a fight, except for the many fights they had over centuries with other Indian Tribes (ain't war grand?!).

Eventually, my Irish ancestors would align with England and become protestant, my Scottish and English ancestors would help to form the United Kingdom, my English ancestors moved to Virginia, Georgia and South Carolina, some married into the Cherokee, some would fight for England, and some for the Colonies during the Revolution.  Eventually, they all became members of the United States of America.

See the pattern...comprehend the common word?  UNITED!

My family story is probably similar to a lot of peoples stories.  We stand against immigration, being immigrants ourselves.  We loath peoples religions and different beliefs, not aware our ancestors once shared those same thoughts we hate today.  We call ourselves American...but really we're just mutts!  Same with the English, the French, the German's...and so the human story rolls...we're all just a messy pile of humanity.

Now is the time to unite.  Unity through Diversity!  It's what made our species strong, and will continue to do so.  We can't afford to be inbred idiot's.  We are meant to expand, explore and explain why Unity through Diversity is the final solution.

So today I raise a glass and proudly exclaim, "KISS ME...I'M HUMAN!"

Cheers,

Sir Hook "the Celtic Scot/Irish, British Viking, Cherokee Emperor" of Warrick

And Now For Something Completely Different!

Official KCSA Web Site

It's crazy how when you have something good going and you ignore it, it simply slips away.  This can be said for business, relationships, families, etc.  It certainly can be said for the Knights and Ladies of our Realm...specifically me, Sir Hook of Warrick "Founding Father".

Realizing that it has been since 2013 since we have made our last post, and 2007 since we shifted from being the Knights of Moleskine Spirit and Ale to the Knights of Creation Spirit and Ale to our newer blog layout, I thought it time for this warrior monk and errant knight to get off his royal arse and do something about it.

Above you will see the fruits of that labor, a labor of love and devotion to our noble cause.  It seems the longer the world spins out of control a voice of reason from the desert is needed.  A voice that knows no boundaries to imagination, nor recognizes any limitations to the human spirit.  A voice that screams, "Unity through Diversity"!  A person of merit who personifies the attributes of "Think...Drink...Create...and BE MERRY...damn it!"

Having decided that using the term creation instead of creativity could violate one of our core principals, we have now become the Knights of Creativity Spirit and Ale.  Better yet, now is the time to unite through our diverse backgrounds and geographic locations to become a Nation of Knights...KnightsNation!

Thus, we have "hooked" (no pun, ok, pun intended) our blogs into one, and have made it part of the KnightsNation web site.  Hell, we even have a web store to buy our logo goods.  That site is what you see a picture of above, as well as the link to it for you to visit.

As you will see, we plan on being able to feature our membership's work and to continue to blog regularly.  The web site is also mobile friendly and we will post our blogs on our new Facebook page as well.  Here is that link.  (Please like our Facebook Page)

So, Knights and Ladies, to horse...to war...for the KCSA nation!

Cheers!
Sir Hook "the not so idle anymore" of Warrick