Ireland in Very Early Times

                     I have a feeling that I could be moving into a greater coherence of  my dealings with Irish prehistory.

                   I'm not Irish, but my name is. I am Richard Carroll Sheehan. "Carroll" and "Sheehan" are each an Irish surname. Some early Sheehan immigrants to the US had a certain respect for the Carrolls already in America. Sheehan's in Ireland had a certain respect their because of certain happings and doings in a distant prehistory. 

                  In preCeltic time Sheehan had different names. They were probably renamed with the coming of the Milestian. I have heard that -han meant something like people so we became the shee people. Some of the why of that probable fact is becoming clearer to more than just me. "Shee" is a later day interptation of  andearly celtic word.

                "Aos Si" or something similar is an early celtic name for a real people of Ireland. They also been called Aes sidhe and the like. They have been named things that meant "people of the mounds" and that seems more useful than other names they have been given. There are remenants of mounds in Ireland today. Those mounds have been called sidhe. They have also been called shee. Shee may have been and be used as an ajective. People of the mounds have been called daoine sidhe. It has also been said that the mounds are shee. So the mound people ancestors of the Shee people, Sheehan. 

                Some say the Si or Sidhe are the Danann and that may be so. I belive it more likely that the Danann were called si, sidhe, or shee. They were more truly called "people of the goddess Danu." The Danann may have reated inland as more and more Celts arrived. They were few in the face of many newcommers. Still they  remained protective of their physical and mental culture. They tried to protect their "mounds" from the newcombers and came to be thought of  by them as the "mound people." Those newcomers were probably mostly Iron Age celts. Those Celts came to be called Milesians after their homeland Miletus. In time, perhaps by their very numbers, the Milesians so dominated the earlier people that the caused the language and culture to virtually disappear. 

                The Aos Si remained respected ancesters for a long time after the extended arrival of Iron Age Mikesians. A faint remenent of that respect seems to remain to this day. Those "shee people" may have seemed a bit fearsome to a few, but they were called ''good neighbors,'' "Fair Folk," and "people of peace." Aos si," "aes sidhe," and "daoine sidhe" all seem to mean people of peace.

                These shee, si, and sidhe were also known as defenders of the old Bronze Age culture which it seems they felt was well worth the effort. The festivals known to this day seem to have been theirs. Those festivals are Samhain, Beltane, and Midsummer. You may now know that the mounds were also theirs.

                The Sheehan of today are a tiny remenent of a part of the culture of pre-Cetic occupants of Ireland. I myself might be 1/4 of one infantismal remenant of  a largely forgotten preCetic culture of Ireland. How very much of that once dominent Celtic culture survives. Among some Highland Scots and others with fewer ties to the Irish Island, there remains some tiny memory of what I have just written. 

                The Bronze Age people I have just written of may be the Danann. I suspect that some Danann and Skithian may have been arriving on the Island an nearly the same time. What have been Skithians were probably Scythians, Scythians may be what who we have called Persians. As we know Iranians were Persians. I hope to be alive enought to write of this later.

                However, the Anatolian island of Miletus is an early home of the Milesians of Ireland. Miletus island and city have been called a famous font of Hellenic philosophy. Miletus was occupied by settlers from Create around 1,600 BC. Creare was the seat of a high prehellenic civilization. By about 600 BC Miletus had become a maritime empire. 

                It is said that the first Milasians, to appear on the shores of  the  western isle beyond the pillars of Hercules, were defeated by the powerful Tuatha De Danann nobility. Names of the Milesian leaders were Mac Cuil, Mac Cecht, and Mac Grein. Not much later other Milesias came and staye.d

                Conflict between the Danann and the Milesians is probably a source of the name Ere for the land which came tombe known as Ireland, 

            There is some evidence that Ireland was  well occupied by 7,500 BC.

                Scythia orobably once included an area around the Caspian sea and may have included what is now Kazakstan, Ukraine, Georgia, and Azerbaijan. Caspians of the area may be called Iranian, preIranians, or non-Indoeuropean people.

                Magos is said to have been a grandson of Noah and, perhaps, the father of Agnoman of Scythia.

                More probably there was Scythian/Irish contact during about 2350 BC  and 1730 BC.

                In Ireland an ancient king of Scythia known as Fenius Farsaidh, Fenius Farsa, and Farsi had something to dowith the intoduction of the Ogham alphabet to Ireland.

                It has been said that Japheth, one of the three sons of Noah, and an ancester of the peoples of the Agean Sea, Anatolia and more. A son of Japheth is Magog. Why would a christian have said such things?

                By about 1,300 BC  many were experiencing a Bronze Age. Ireland had been heard of around the Baltic Sea and the mediterranian and further abroad. At the same time Egypt had come under Egyptian control again. Also about this time the people of a small Greek island near the coast of present Turkey came to know of Ireland. That Island was Miletus know to peoples of the Mediterranian world and to quite a few in Ireland. 

                

  

It is Good to Know Your Sources

 Some Sources for Irish History and Prehistory         

              Labor Gabala Erenn, In English The Book of Invasions, from Cessair to Danann is a literary work of the taking of Ireland. It is not just a pack of lies, but is best taken with a grain of salt. It has been influenced by the church, by conaurers, and by Roman works.

            If it becomes your principal source for early Irish history you may stray far from reality.

            There is information on pre-Roman Ireland and it is being studied and clarified. But even our timeline of those early days and centuries is as faulty as our timeline of Egyptian early history and prehistory.

Historians:

            There are English translations of early Irish histories. I would like to see well translated works by Roderick O'Flaherty. I have heard of his work Ogygia. He is an Irish historian born in 1629 AD and who died in about 1717. He seems to have been the last recognized chief of clan Flaherty. He inherited Muycullen Castle and lost it tp Cromwell in the 165os. His son helped him lose another 200,000 acres. He became a highly regarded historian with neither Castle nor 200,000 acres. Seems a fine man for coming from as far north as he did.

            His teacher was Dubhaltach MacFhirbhisigh, who has been known ad Duald MacFirbis, Dudly Ferbisie. He was known to be alive in 1643 and died in January of 1671. He was an Irish scribe, translator, historian, and genealogist. He was one of the last traditionally trained Irish Gaelic scholars. His best known work is the Leabhar na nGenealach which was published in 2004 as The Great Book of Irish Genealogies.

            Who is Eamonn Burca

            Dudly may have received his training at Mac Aohagain bardic school located at Ballymaceagan Lough Derg, County Tipperary.

Prehistory and myth   

            Remember when we say prehistory we usually mean that solid documentation is lacking. And that often we say myth we speak of another

 man's religion or history.

 

            Ogygia is a name for the mythical Greek island of  Calypso. The Nymph Calypso lived on an island called Calypso. It is said that the name Calypso refers to "hidden knowledge" or "concealing the knowledge." Calypso's father may have been Atlas and her mother Tethys.

            Dudly in Ogyia credits Milesius as the father of the Goidelic people. Sounds right.  The people of  the island of Milesius may be those who caused my name to be changed to Sheehan. It  may well be a truth passed on by Dudly that each letter of ancient Ogham is the name of a given tree.

            There is a lot to enjoy and a lot to learn about Ireland's wide ranging ancient connections with a significant part of the world.

            Thank you for reading.

                                                                                rcs

It's About Ireland to Before it Was

             Tir na nOg has been called shee. Some have called it Land of youth. More have called it Land of Our Youth or Our earlier Land, or  the Land We Came From, or Our Home Land. I have called it the shee land across the sea.

             We can call the above, About Ireland. I hope to add more about Ireland just below.

           

             Can "sidhe" and ''shee" be synonymous or nearly so?

9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999

            Here, I will begin to write about the people of Ireland.

            One of these people are the Fomorians. They are probably one of the very first people in and around Ireland as the ice melted. They were probably a pre flood people of advanced culture. They were seamen, navigators, and perhaps sea raiders. Some of them were among the very first immigrants to the Emerald Island. There is strong evidence of Fomorians before 600 BC. I believe that they were there very long before that time.

            They have been described as bad, dark, Danann, good, light. It is said that Partholon won a battle against them. It seem that they lost few battles.

            Lugh was half Fomorian. Balor was a leader of Fomorians and built a fort for Bres. Indech mac de was king of Fomorians at the time.

            There is more to say about these sea  going people and I will try to add more about them right here.

            Another early people of Ireland may be call Fir Bolg, Fir Blog may be translatable as bag men. The Fir Bolg may have known Greece. Nemid is said to have "fathered" them. 

            These Bolg divided the Island into provinces, like counties. We can begin to know the names of these people as we speak of these provinces. For example, Gan takes North Munster, Sengann takes south Munster, Genann takes what becomes Connacht, Rudraige takes what becomes Ulster, Slanga takes Leinster. The first High Kings of Ireland were the five takers of provinces.

            Some have said that their father was related to Nemid. Their father may have been called Della.

            Of  the brothers Slaine may have rued in Leinster 1748 BC to 1703 BC. Ganann, son of Dela, and his brother Genann are said to have landed  at Iber Dubglaaise and to have split Munster between them.

            Gann and Genann were followed by Sengann, who was followed by Fiacha Cennfinnan. Sengann ruled from between about 1927 BC and 1507 BC to between 1921 BC and 1502 BC.

            I intend to write more about Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Danann, Milesians, and perhaps others right here, updating these notes.

            Some miscellany that it may be worth remembering are that Bress was a Danann king with Fomorian relatives. Prince Elatha of the Fomorians was the father of Bress.

            Bress or Bres was High King of Ireland either from 1897 BC to 1890 BC or from 1477 Bc to 1470 BC. He was proceeded by Eochaid and succeeded Nuada.

 

            They were in Ireland just before a people called the Danann.

            The Fir Bolg left captivity in Greece and headed west via Iberia and continued to their ancient land of Ireland. 

              I know I am rambling about early Irish history and will probably continue to do so. I could ramble into some curious and interesting doings and happenings.

                This may be a good place to begin to write about the Dan people. I'll call them Danann for now while I do some speculation.

                I am beginning to believe that Irish and Dan fought on the side of the Phoenician against the advance of Roman legions. It seems impossible not to believe that the Danann were so real and alive that many Bronze Age Irish were related to them. I would like to know if there is anyway the Judaic tribe of Dan can be related to the Irish Danaan. And I am even suspecting connections between the Danes of Denmark and the great blue Danube. Help me out if you can and will.

                I could use some company in trying to understand some of these relationships. It seems certain that Phoenician and Irish early became well known to one another.

                There is a lot to learn we could go on to see if there is more evidence of the Scythian being known to Scot and Irish; Could Scott and Irish be pre-Celtic relatives who retained a conscious from before and through the Iron Age. There is a lot to learn and lots of dates to firm up.

                I have lots of related areas I would like to know more about. Like how did the Iberian Peninsula come to be called the Iberian Peninsula and what could that have to do with Irish and Hebrew? 

                It will be interesting to get more clarifying info about early connections between Ireland and and Eastern Med cultures and beyond.

                Here I may try t4o put together a few bits of information connected to that which the early Irish had to say about the early Irish.  The Fomorian might prove interesting.

Here is a first attempt to list the groups of people who came to the Island.

Greeks were among the early comers and the came long before the Phoenicians were comers, but I do not know where to put them in the following list. I am not proud of this list, but I offer it as my first try at useful names and realistic order:

Fomorian

Nenidian

Fir 

Dannan

Milesian

            That's it my first list. I do want  Milesian to stay as my most recent comer and the Tuatha De Dannan to come just before them. But what should I do with people of Cessair, people of Partholon, and people of Nemed?

            

                                                                                    rcs

            

            

James Hoban of Kilkenny

 James Hoban knew the White House well.

He was born in Ireland in 1758 and died in Washington, DC in 1831.

He did important architectural work in the Mid Atlantic and Southern states.

He was the designer and architect of the White House at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

Mr. Hoban also supervised the reconstruction  of the White House after it was destroyed in the War of 1812. 




by Richard Sheehan
for Mago Bill

History Timelines

             For those interested in history timelines, now may be a good time to check out our timelines. Among those timelines there are many dealing with very early prehistoric times.

            If you have never been interested in time lines, try checking out three or four of them here now. You may find yourself putting some interesting info together. 

            On the first page of any of our blogs you will find a list of "Associated Blogs" to click on and visit. On those lists you will find a few of the "History Timelines" available to you here.

            Explore!

                                                                            rcs

Search This Site

 

 Mago Bill: Blog search

           For readers who are not familiar with the many search options available to them here, I will begin to review some of them.

            It seems that blogs are so out of fashion that few remember how they may be fashioned. For example this blog is of three columns. I have used the central column as the place up to 400 essays or posts.

                An important function of the columns to the left and right of the central column is to offer you apps to help you find the essays which interest you. They are largely made up of search apps. However, they also contain other helpful apps.

             Let me begin with the column to your left on the main view of the page. On all of my blogs the this left hand column begins with the app which allows you to select the language in which to choose to read the post you select.

                Other apps you will find in this column may have a different order on each of the associated blogs. For example the next app might be "Associated Blog Sites to visit." To be transported to the one which interests you and be transported to it. The next app may be "Popular Posts." There you can find the names of up to four posts others have been finding interesting. Each name will be follow by a few words about it. click on that name and that post will appear. Next you may come to a title that reads "Pages." Click on one of the listings there and be taken to another page where you can find posts much like this one or different.

                The last listing in this column will usually be "Blog Archive." This can be a very useful app for you. Use it to become familiar with the essays and other posts available on this blog site. You will see a list of years and months. Click on one and you will taken to all of the posts published in that period. All are interesting and usually contain some hard to find YouTube videos which YouTube allows me to show.

                The right hand column usually begins with a search app, perhaps with the  title "Search This Site." There is a little window in which you may enter a word or phrase and then click on the word "Search." Try it and see what happens.

                I will leave this little post here for a few weeks and then move it to "Pages." You are now on the home page.

                This is a good place from which to comment.

                                                                                rcs

 

Inspired By Mago

 Mago Bill: Mago and Magos

 

                I have posted a lot about Mago Bill and have even had a couple of Mago Bill blogs. He is probably a Munsterman even though his parents brought him to the States as a toddler.

 

                Mago Bill is a name I have given to my great grandfather, M. William Sheehan. Sheehan is a fine and interesting surname, but Mago attracts me more.

Spanish speaking friends tell me that in Spanish mago means magician and the like. Some also tell me that "the three kings'' or "three wise men" of Christmas are called magos and that each of them is a mago. This seems interesting to me but may have been of no interest at all to my great grandfather.

 

                However, I have been told that before Rome came of age and in the early days of Carthage, that Mago was an important family name among the Carthaginian Phoenicians. I see that Magos where friends and family of a famous guy by the name of Hannibal.

 

                Magos were well known traders, navigators, and military leaders of Carthage. Carthaginian traders and navigators came to Ireland for a variety of reasons. The main reason was probably tin. In the Bronze age and beyond tin was important because without it there was little bronze. The Irish of the day were metal workers, craftsmen, and artists. They were also miners, alchemists, poets, and lovers.

    

                Some Irish seem also to have been impressionable, for they heard the name Mago so often from the visiting Carthaginians that a few infants were called Mago. From that time and centuries on, the name Mago was from time to time quite popular Ireland. I have heard that two early bishops each had the name Mago.

 

                The name Mago and Mago Bill have, from time to time, influenced and inspired my research and writing of history.

 

                On this blog you can find out more about him. You can also find a bit about him on the blog History With RCS.

 

                Thanks for your visit and thank you for reading this essay which I have written for you.

 

                More to come,

     

 

                                                        bye for now

                                                        RCS

 

Read These Posts in Your Favorite Language

 

Mago Bill: You can read Mago Bill posts in your own language with just a click.

                If you are from Sri Lanka, Brazil, Singapore, Pakistan, Peru, Estonia, Russia, Slovenia, Argentina, Switzerland, Belgium, Malaysia, Portugal, Japan, Austria, Mexico, Poland, Trinidad and Tobago, Netherlands, Malta, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, or  Uruguay, Chile, South Africa, Afghanistan, our translation function has your language and many others. 
  
                Check the top left hand column of Mago Bill and you change the post to a language you are comfortable with. The translations are not always perfect, but many of our posts translate well.

                            RCS

  

Read Mago Bill Posts in Your Own Language

 

Mago Bill: You can read Mago Bill posts in your own language with just a click.

                If you are from Sri Lanka, Brazil, Singapore, Pakistan, Peru, Estonia, Russia, Slovenia, Argentina, Switzerland, Belgium, Malaysia, Portugal, Cyprus, Austria, Mexico, Poland, Trinidad and Tobago, Netherlands, Malta, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, or  Uruguay, Chile, South Africa, Afghanistan, our translation function has your language and many others. 
  
            Check the top left hand column of this blog and you change the post to a language you are comfortable with. The translations are not always perfect, but many of our posts translate well.

                            RCS

  

A Reason Not to Love Historty

Mago Bill: A good reason not to love History.                    

It is not  all about Ukraine. It's about us too. Yes, you and me. Please try to check the history or to find someone who can. It may be difficult to take, but reality can help us stay sane. We can be clear about more of this when we want to.

                        rcs

 "Child's" Verse

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.

And all the king's horses,
and all the kings men,
couldn't put Humpty Dumpty

together

again.

                                                                        rcs

Scrolling and Blog Search

 

Mago Bill: blog search

                Please, tell me about your scrolling experience on Mago Bill in the comment section below. Are you able to easily scroll through hundreds of posts and videos? Do there seem to be posts missing. Thank you for reading this plea for help.

                How many ways do you know for searching this blog?

                How do you like to explore blogs?

                                                                       

                                                                        rcs

Rememberance: A Conversation

 Mago Bill Experience: Experiential differences not all related to age, but experience does take time.

 

                She was a young girl of about his age. She was speaking with an older woman she obviously cared for, but she was saying with some vehemence, "You just don't care."

                The older woman seemed truly fond of the young girl, and who may have felt some hurt at the girl's words, still answered in kindly tones. He still remembered what she said. She said, "I have come to see that some things do not matter very much and, that most things don't matter at all."

                The girl answered still with some feeling, "You don't care about anything." 

                The woman answered a bit as though she were speaking to herself as much as to the girl. "I once knew a wise old gentleman who did not believe in 'things.'"

                                                                                            by Richard S.
                                                                                            for Mago Bill

Colombia: A taste of geography and climate

 Mago Bill, Colombia:The geography is spectacular and the climate heavenly.

        

             Several peaks in the Colombian Andes reach above 10,000 feet. Fewer reach above 18,000 feet. Has a peak of more that 20,000 feet been found. Colombians have built, are building, and maintaining efficient highways throughout their beautiful and sometimes daunting mountain ranges. You may find the percentage of Colombians who live in these mountains amazing.

              

             Colombia on both of our Earth's great seas. If an outline of all the bays, coves, inlets, and peninsulas of Colombian seashores were measured, not counting islands, one might find find there were about 2,000 miles of coast to explore. That would included about 200 miles of good bathing beaches. About half of the coast is on the Pacific and the other on the Caribbean. Perhaps we could communicate about islands latter.                           

 

             Colombian also has large plains, savannas, rivers, and a large piece of Amazon jungle available to you. It has perhaps  four deserts. The Guajira, bordering on Venezuela, the Caribbean and Colombian departments has a true desert ecosystem. Its hard to get bored here.

           

             Bordering on the Pacific, the wonderful Choco is perhaps the rainiest region on Earth. When I was there it rained a bit heavy at night. I remember taking a short walk to a friend's house and getting not unpleasantly soaked on the way, and arriving dry! With its great rainfall, parts of Choco has exuberant rain-forest which gets, even with climate change, gets nearly 365 inches of rain a year.

                

            Many call the climate of Colombia like an eternal spring. However there is a wide verity of weather, climate and temperature here. However, if one feels a bit too cool, one can travel downhill a bit and find a more comfortable warmth. I spend most of my time at between 5,000 and 6,000 feet were some feel a bit chilly at times, but I feel great. Be careful, if you are traveling cheaply at well above 5,000 feet it is still possible to find oneself in a hostle or hotel with water "al clima" for bathing. At the higher altitudes that can be cold.

             

            There is much of interest to learn about Colombia and Colombians. Come on down and find out. 

            

             Thank you for reading.

             

                                                       

 

                                                                         RCS

 

Free, Democratic, Inclusive

  Cossack, Ukrainian, and Free

 

                Cossacks have been free men and democratic. They have only been known to history since about 650 AD. They have been active in self-governing communities for well over a thousand years. They have been open, inclusive, with a Slavic bent. They knew a world from Siberia to Lithuania and up and down for many years, but were drawn to a certain land.

                The Ukrainian Cossack State was formed in about 1650 in what is now central Ukraine. Their leaders were elected.

                Through the years they have been few. Democracy is not easy. They experienced much, and stayed free among strong neighbors such as Poland, Russia, and Lithuania. Among such neighbors they continued to show a strong will for self-governance.

                They formed the Ukrainian Peoples Republic in 1917 to 1921, the western Ukrainian Peoples Republic 1918 to 1919, and the Ukrainian Peoples Republic in exile  from 1920 to 1992.

                They were among the very first members of the Soviet Union with its promise of self-governing citizens. They may have been the first to leave that Union when it showed little will to self-governing citizenship.

                They were among the charter members of the United Nations with its promise of a chance for peace and freedom. They have not given up on their fellow members yet. 

                Ah, yes, I believe that at the breakup of the Soviet Union the were left with one of the greatest stock of atomic weapons on Earth and gave up that stock to the U.N.

                They have been few and still are. They are still a mixture of races, nationalities, and religions. They are a free democratic people self selected from that mixture.

                We might mention that while all this was going on they, with the help of a few viking Norsemen, created Russia. Oh, and they had a modern republic type written constitution in 1710.

                I believe that a history of the cultures most effecting these people could be traced back another 4,000 years. However, before about 650 AD they were little recognized in history as a discrete people. Throughout perhaps a thousand years of their history they stayed freer, more democratic, and inclusive than most. They have had to defend themselves and they have. They have also kept the hope and faith that they could live a free people among free people. They have  seen inclusiveness, freedom, and democracy disappear like smoke again and again. Still they hold a vision of that freedom and self governance closer and dearer than do most.

               Please feel free to correct this work or add to it in the "comments" section below or just to click on a social media button just below.

                Ukraine. Ukraine. Ukraine.

                Thank you for reading.

 

                                                                                    rcs 

 

 

We/Us

Mago Bill: A kind of contemplation of 'we' and 'us' as a social value.

            We can agree that "we" is a relationship, can't we? When we agree to relate it may be good to speak of the level at which we wish to relate. At what level might it be good for us to relate? We could speak of the reason for our relationship. How might we go about relating ? Might it be important that we show our concern for our "we?"

            What's in it for you? What's your interest? How is a mutual or reciprocal relationship handled?

            A "we" must consist of people, persons, individuals, right? Have you seen
the start of a "we?" Was there a kind of joining? Doesn't a "we" require some kind of maintenance?

            What do you suspect, believe, or know about the "we" in the "We the people..." document?

            That "we" could refer to us. How do we go about keeping track of our common interests? How do we reciprocate? "We the people" are a social relationship, aren't they?

            Let's say that we are the people in the "We the people" we know about.
What is the nature of our relationship? What is reason for our relationship? What's in it for you?

            "We" implies a unity, a union. We can probably agree that better and worse unions can be detected. How might we form a more perfect union?

            You may have some notions of "we" stirring in your mind now.

            Communication is important. Talk, dialogue, discussion are important. Talk of "us" and "we"  may be so important as to be called vitally important.

            I say that communication of persons is vitally important for the initiation and maintenance of a "we".    

            To have a good nation we have to have a good "we". 




Meditation techniques can be improved.


                                                                                        by Richard
for Mago Bill

 

A Visit to Colombia

             For many, a visit to Colombia has been a high point of their lives.

               Some who have enjoyed a visit to Colombia have increased their joy by learning more about Colombia. YouTube seems a handy place to find out more about this South American land.

                Colombians are new-world Americans. They live on the best part of  of the far north of South America. They are largely of Spanish heritage and they speak Spanish.

                When you intend to visit Colombia, it may contribute to your pleasure to be prepared to deal with Colombians in their own language. You can have have an oral translation app on your iPhone, or a bilingual friend with you. You might take some Spanish language lessons where you live or sign up for some here in Colombia. All the biggest cities and the more important tourist cities have language schools available when there is no pandemic. It's also possible to arrange to have your visit guided by one who speaks your language.

                If you are making realistic plans for a visit, investigate getting a correct chip for your mobile phone. It may be that phones of your country won't work here without a change of chips. There are smart phones available here, but you could find them an unneeded expense.

However, with some care, you can buy an ordinary cell phone here and have it nicely set up for use at a reasonable price.

                In many parts of the major cities and tourist areas one finds pleasing places to eat and sleep. It is good to take special care of your eating at first without being overly fearful of trying local specialties. When eating at a bit less than average restaurant, it may be best to stick with dishes hot off the stove.

                Ah, yes. In those same parts of tourist areas and major cities you have a fair chance meeting travelers or Colombians with whom you may speak your own language.

                Enough about you.

                This is meant to be part of a series of tiny essays about Colombia and Colombia. But first, a few words about me.

                I am an old American citizen who has lived in Colombia among Colombians for some time. Some have said to me, "Why haven't you written about Colombia?" and "Why don't you write about Colombia?" and other such questions. Instead of considering answers, I thought, "Why not?" I thought to myself, "I can note some observations of mine and maybe even say something about what I have made of them."

            When you would like me to write more about Colombia, tell me about your interest in the "comments" section below.

 

 

                                                                    rcs

    

 

 

This Is Really Happening

Mago Bill: It is happening around us and to us.

 

We can feel it happening.

We can see and hear it happening.

We know it is happening.

We can learn more about its nature by talking to one another and listing to each other.

We have real experiences and interpretations to share.

We once declared our freedom of speech.

  

We can consider happenings and doings.

We have done and we can do now.

We talk honestly and that is a great doing.

We listen to hear and understand and that is a great doing.

We listen to each other and that is a great doing.

We can share real experiences and that is a great doing.

We can share honest opinions and that is a great doing.

We can do great doings.

We know that some of what is really happening is not great. 

We know that some of that happening around us and to us is not great.

We know that too much said and done in our names is not great.

We know that an important part of that which we feel about pride, values, and honor is great. 

We know that we can unite.

We know we can take little steps toward a more perfect union.

We know that united we can do great doings and experins great happenings

We can find greater joy in our independence together.

Happy Days




                                                                                by Richard Sheehan
                                                                               

Quotes III

 Mago Bill: Six Quotes which have a slightly Irish bent

Quotes:

            I cherish the creation of public space and services especially health, housing, and the comprehensive education system which dated give many of us ideas "above our station."

                    ~ Francis O'Grady, British Trade Unionist 1959

            Anyone who keeps learning stays young.

                    ~ Old Man Ford

            Learn, unlearn and relearn.

                    ~ anon.

            I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.

                    ~ Twain

            You can't make up an empty mind.

                    ~ McCourt, me, or a newsletter

            Let morals and values be an  important part of your education. The reality you make your own is even more important.

                    ~ From an Irish news letter I read

                                                                            rcs

Leadership Skills

 Mago Bill: You have more than one leadership skill, practice them.                              

 

            In this video you are reminded of six leadership skills that can take you far and help us all to a better life, a better world.

Do the following:

1. Be there, show up.

2. Speak up, do something, share.

3. Be aware of your visions and your values, share them.

4. Team up, practice  partnership, co-operate.

5. Don't give up. making  changes is OK, giving up not so much, keeping on keeping on is life.

6. Give back support and credit. Lift others up.

                                                                        rcs

 

 

 

Little "d" Democrats

Mago Bill: One might say philosophical democrats.

 

            In the distant past there were democrats. There were democrats in the recent past. There are still some democrats. A democrat might be thought of as a person who believes in people and in their ability to learn and do. I know little about what democrats are doing at the moment. I do have a sharp memory of that which some democrats did in my lifetime.  

            Democrats have tended to promote certain doings. Some of  those doings tended to be definitive of their beliefs.

Democrats have promoted:

~ enhancement and protection of democracy among us.

 ~ the study of legislation affecting democracy.

~ vigorous ongoing education about the use and doing of democracy.

~ improved communication among political parties and within them.

~ development of widespread leadership rather than super leaders.

~ enhanced education for participation in governance.

~ cooperative self-governance.

~ willingness to thoughtfully and promptly change a bad law for the better.

~ strong respect for our laws.

~ inclusivity  and diversity in public life.

~ cooperation within and among groups.

~ knowledge of the history of democracy including it's  limitations and advantages.

~ respect for the varieties of democracy around the world.

~ our Constitution and it's Bill of Rights.

~ our national Bill of Rights.

~ loving care of each and every child.

~ respect and honor for the individual, the family, and the neighborhood.

~ more nearly equal opportunity for access to healthcare for each person.

~ strong support for public health.

~ respect for and support of the position of minorities.

~ wide, ongoing educational opportunities for all.

            The above could suggestive of planks for the platform of a present party or candidate.

            What would you add?

            Thank you for reading.

                                                                               

                                                                                                    by Richard

                                                            for you