Monday Madness: You Discovered What?!?

Ahh Noah....Good times on that voyage!

When I started writing this blog, I didn't realize the amount of research it would take.  I have to find references, review movie clips, look up definitions, study history, locate pictures, edit, and apply it all into something that makes sense.  I love it!  I am learning so much about things I thought I knew a lot about. 

One of my favorite posts to write is Tuesday Travels.  The spirit of adventure blows me all over the Caribbean along with dreams to get on a sail boat and just go.  Now that's my kind of travel!

There's something in the research I'm kind of questioning though.  I do my best to credit the founders and explorers who were brave enough to enter the unknown and get the names and dates right.  Their stories are quite fascinating.  What did they hope to find and where did they think they were going to find it.  Quite a daunting thought actually and one deserving of praise.  Give them credit for getting out there while the funders were sitting around ruling something. 

Here's my problem though.  It seems they set out in anticipation and excitement of the voyage, cruised around, basically became lost, starved, got scurvy, probably didn't have baths (I have a thing with not bathing) and were desperate to set foot on land....any land.  A lovely coastline appears and Hallelujah.....after a year or so they hit paydirt and kiss it.  They don't have a stinking clue where they are! 

Cautiously, they stand up and survey the situation....hmmm....no one's around.  "Quick Napoleon, grab the flag and stick it in the ground!!!  I, the first person here, discovered and claim this land for...some country in Europe!!!  History will remember this forever!!"  One small problem Einstein, you didn't notice the people standing behind the bush.  They were already living there.  We call them natives of whatever land you found and they may have been there for centuries.  Hate to say it but, you weren't the first humans there. 

So guess what....You Didn't Discover It.  The ship just hit a big rock while you were lost.  Don't cover up the lack of navigational skills by saying "Uh, I meant to do that."  Say something like, "Ferdinand, I missed India by a long shot but hey, I ran into a cool and groovy huge continent." Own it and fess up to the lost and found. 

Whew!  I'm glad I got that out.  I am voting for the second definition of discover which is "to become aware of" something.  So maybe we should say, "Columbus became aware of America."  Nah, probably not because it sounds better when you say "Columbus discovered America" and history teachers can be more dramatic.   

The other funny vision I have, is of a bunch of guys poised on St. Thomas, looking to the horizon, and seeing 4 or 5 other islands.  They are tripping over themselves in a stampede to go pinballing around and claim those too.  Meanwhile, the natives are standing there laughing.

For good and bad, exploration has brought awareness of and settlement to, a vast number of nations.  So in that spirit, here's to my favorite TV programming, the "Became Aware Of" channel and all of the great lessons we can learn from it.  And finally, my maddening tongue twister:  I discovered I didn't discover the discovery of the Discovery channel, but did discover the discovery that I can't discover the way to work the remote to discover the Discovery channel.  Savy?