Death of a Language

And the whole earth was of one language,

and of one speech.

Genesis 11:1

We have come a long, long ways from the beginning of the earth when there was only one language for the entire population.  Now there are some 6,000-7,000 languages in the world.  But that richness of communication is being threatened by extinction.  We are losing small group languages at a rate of one every two weeks, according to a recent study.  Some 96% of the world's population speak just 4% of the world's languages.  

In Scotland, for example, A 92-year-old retired engineer in northern Scotland recently died, and so has the dialect that he spoke.  With his death, the dialect of Cromarty fisherfolk  is consigned to a small collection of distorted audio clips.  The Cromarty dialect was directly related to the fishing methods of the people who lived on the shores of the Black Isle peninsula.  During the industrialization of the fishing industry in the 1950's, those distinct methods were lost, and in less than 30 years, the dialect became obsolete.  Now it is extinct.

So what's the big deal about losing a language or two - particularly those that are now spoken by groups with less than a hundred members?  Exactly this:  we not only lose the language, we lose the stories connected to that language, and the cultural knowledge contained in those stories.  We are tied to the past by our memories and knowledge, and when the language disappears, the memories and knowledge pass on  as well.

That is why oral history projects like StoryCorps are so very important, not only here in the United States, but around the world.  Recording the stories in our language, of our culture, is important to the generations who come after us.  What we know, what we remember, what we have been through is significant information for our children and grandchildren.  If you have an important story to share, investigate StoryCorps on the internet, check your local listings for possible oral history projects, or grab a recorder and make your own story archive. 

Curiosity

And he (King Josiah) put down the idolatrous

priests, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn

incense in the high places in the cities of Judah...;

them also that burned incense to Baal, to the sun,

and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all

the host of heaven.

II Kings 23:5

I have always been curious about the other planets in our solar system - but none more so than Mars, the "red planet."  Easily seen from earth with the naked eye, Mars is the fourth planet from the sun and the second smallest in our solar system.  Like every other child of my era, I often wondered what it would be like to visit the moon or take a trip to Mars.  I never dreamed, growing up, that man would have machines roving the surface of the red planet in my lifetime.  Mars currently hosts five functioning spacecrafts:  three in orbit - the Odyssey, the Express, and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter; and two on the ground - The Opportunity exploration rover, and The Curiosity science lab.

The picture above is a landscape shot sitting in the crater where Curiosity landed.  The picture below shows Mount Sharp on the Martian surface.

It looks like something out of a fairytale book.  It is somewhat difficult to believe that while I sit here this evening tapping away on my computer keyboard, Curiosity is roving across the surface of a far-away planet, taking amazing pictures and investigating, among other things, the planetary habitability of Mars.

The verse above, in the book of II Kings is the only mention in the Bible of planets (or heavenly bodies). On the fourth day of creation, however, when God created the sun, moon and stars, the creation of the planets were surely a part of that day's process.  Our earth is lush and plush in contrast with the stark barrenness of Gale Crater and the landscape of Mars.  Perhaps it was not always that bleak.  I hope that Curiosity will provide scientists with the great deal of raw data and images that will answer many of our questions about the history and sustainability of Mars.

Apples

A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold

in pictures of silver.

Proverbs 25:11

One of my favorite autumn rituals is the arrival of the new crop of apples.  Living in central Virginia, we have wonderful apple orchards in the Blue Ridge Mountains, and we "city slickers" can't wait to get our hands on them.  The church where I am employed has an Apple Fest every fall, ordering Fuji, Stayman, Red Delicious, Yellow Delicious, Granny Smith and Pink Lady apples that are delivered the first week of November.  There is nothing quite like a crisp apple straight from the orchard.  When I pick up my order, the apples are less than 48 hours from the tree.  Marvelous!

I was curious about apples in the Bible.  Of course, there is the old legend that the fruit Eve took from the forbidden tree was an apple, but the Scriptures give us no such information.  The Genesis record does refer to the creation of fruit trees, but no varieties are cited.  The first direct mention of apples is this verse in Proverbs, written by King Solomon, and is obviously referring to a piece of art or jewelry rather than the real fruit.  The Canticles of the Song of Solomon, however, refers to both apples and apple trees in several places.  The only other mention of an apple tree is in the book of the prophet Joel.

Jonathan Chapman, born in 1774 in Massachusetts, was an American pioneer, nurseryman, and planter of apple trees throughout the United States - particularly in Illinois, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and the northern counties of West Virginia.  Known as Johnny Appleseed, he loved to tell stories to children of his travels to children, and would often stay with families, reading to them in the evenings in exchange for a meal and a spot by the fire to sleep.  Johnny loved the Lord, he loved apples, and he loved the land that God created.  When he died in 1845, he had been planting apple trees for more than 50 years.

Original recipe makes 1 dozen muffins Change Servings

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup white sugar

3 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup apple juice

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 egg

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 cup apples - peeled, cored and finely diced

Directions

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C). 
2. Grease bottoms only of 12 muffin cups or line with baking cups.
3. In a medium bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt; mix well. 
4. In a small bowl, combine apple juice, oil, and egg; blend well. 
5. Add dry ingredients all at once; 
6. stir just until dry ingredients are moistened (batter will be lumpy.)
7.  Stir in chopped apples.
8. Fill cups 2/3 full. 
9. Bake for 18 to 22 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. 
10. Cool 1 minute before removing from pan. Serve warm.