How the West was Won?

Go West young man, go West. How was the West won? Do you know? Did you know that the popular and romantized era of cowboys, indians, outlaws and sheriffs only lasted 10-20 years?

In 1873 Timothy O'Sullivan made the oldest photos of the American West as it was charted for the first time. I love this one: Camp Beauty, Arizona (1873). Mark the tents.

More pictures of him: here (DailyMailCoUk, 2012) and here (Wiki Commons).

Reward

 

Wanted: a spring fairy (Dutch 'lentefee). And the reward is ...

P.S. Just another Chinese garden (blogpost from 2010).

Human All Too Human

Did you follow the democratic elections 2017 in The Netherlands? Surprised by the results? I am not. In general the Dutch are common sense people and down to earth (Epicurean). Not as black and white as USA citizen sometimes seem (Stoic). Some people in my country are (very) angry but that group is relatively small. We, the others, "listen" to their constraints, complaints and anger but on our terms, not theirs. We adapt and take account of their grievances but ... step by step.

Look at this picture of Ramesses II of Ancient Egypt (1303-1213 BC). We can almost see him sleep on his deathbed. Partly bald. Hawk nose. Human.

Such a pity that we don't have the remains of Aristotle, Alexander the Great, Cleopatra VII, Jesus of Nazareth, Mohammed, Charlemagne and many more. To being able to have a picture just like that. To make all of us more human. Human, all too human. I guess that's what the world needs now: human as friends and not as enemies/ others/ subhuman/ not human at all.

P.S. Epicurean versus Stoic? I wrote about this in blogpost 'What's your amount of being a stoic? Or on the stupidness of the #red tag' (2009).

Less

 

The older I get the less words I need to live, to breath, to justify me.

Box

Some people think like this:

I prefer:

P.S. I wrote on this before in 'Don't Squeeze' (2012) and 'Fly!' (2013).