Reading the first six chapters of Leviticus and it brings back memories of what is allowed and what is not allowed except I was raised Christian so only heard that expressed as what the people of Israel had to do to be able to be close to God and to live in His presence. For God was with the people of Israel as a cloud by day and fire by night. Always with them; God wanted the world to know that He was the only God. God brought the Israeli people out of slavery and bondage in Egypt and back to the Promised Land where the bones of their forefather Jacob had been taken four hundred years or more earlier after he died in Egypt. This total surrender by the people of Israel to God's commands was their way forward into time so long ago now but they did it and brought to us now in the present the Old Testament so that we too can learn the history of Homo sapiens with respect to our God.
Perhaps it is being Christian that I interpret all of this in the fashion that I do. Still in the back of my brain are my grandfather's stories about the early peoples in England being one of the Lost Tribes of Israel. The Western Hunter Gatherer DNA that my brothers carry is ancient to the British Isles and indeed other old family names in the Andover to Basingstoke area of Hampshire also carry Western Hunter Gatherer DNA which is fascinating and one can think that the depth of their habitation in this area is known by family lore as being ancient to this land. What is ancient to the British Isles. The British Isles was covered by ice likely to a depth of 1 kilometer during the Last Ice Age so nothing likely lived on the British Isles prior to that date but one is left to wonder did those Hunter Gatherers retreat to the south during the Ice Age and then return home as it receded thousands of years later. There is much to learn in the archaeological digs of the British Isles. Why do we carry (my siblings and I) both Neanderthal (2%) and Denisovan (3%) DNA material from these two earlier groups of Homo? What is it telling us? Many carry these two in varying amounts. But primarily all of my autosomal lines are ancient to the British Isles - one line back in the late 1400s came to Dunster, Somerset from France (Huguenot).
Tomorrow I continue reading Leviticus which I always consider to be one of the most difficult chapters in the Bible perhaps because we are learning about communion with God and how it is achieved. No ideas on that really as it belongs to the past; a very long time ago and Jesus came to bring an easier shorter list of commandments - love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and love our neighbour as ourself. That way wars can end and the world can find that peaceful plain where all prosper and evil is gone. He is the God of the Jews, of the Christians and of the Muslims and they are the only religions that I know and primarily I am familiar with the Christian religion principally.
Yesterday was a moving day as we shifted work desks about to make our task of working much easier and even streamlined. I need to downsize and it has taken me five years to accept that I need to downsize and this summer will see me send material that belongs to the Kipp family and it will be in the Archives where anyone can look at it or use it. I also sent links to Edward's work online and anyone can download that. It is his gift to the Kipp family of which he was a member. I suppose in my mind I kept thinking maybe one of his own would contact me and say we want all that material. But no one did and so I must make the move forward to place it where it can be seen. I am also thinking of now getting rid of my Fiche Reader back to the OGS where it belongs and the fiche will go to the Anglican Church Archives which I set up a number of years ago as at the time of purchase from various repositories in England I agreed to place the material in an appropriate place which the Anglican Church Archives at my church is certainly appropriate. They already have a number of holdings. I will check to make sure they still want them. Each move forward brings me closer to my one room theory of how I eventually need to live.
My grandfather would have loved all this knowledge. He loved to read and the same for my grandmother. Both encouraged me to read and to write and to learn as much as I could.
Solitaire puzzles next.
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