3,500 year old Cleopatra’s Needle in Central Park?!

Message from the Pharaohs in Our Backyard

I’m seeing the sun from a new vantage point today - the same sun that shone over Egypt 3,500 years ago when Cleopatra’s Needle was carved.

Happiest day, beloved Joy Train Rider! I love you. Bless you. I affirm that you/we are staying resolute and strong, as demonstrated by the massive turn out of Americans yesterday on May Day to uphold the values of our democracy.

After our last ride I received a compliment I will treasure from Rider Dr. Joan, a longtime friend and world-traveled Jazz artiste:

“I love reading your posts. Your enthusiasm is contagious.”

I’m so grateful for the affirmation. If there is one simple thing I’d ask my countrymen and women to reconsider, it’s the use of the word a-f-r-a-i-d. I haven’t spoken that word in almost 30 years since I learned about resonance and vibration from “The Secret.” Also, in the present circumstances, expressing that emotion emboldens the aggressor. In high school I cut my attempted bully down with an attitude of utter contempt and a few choice words - “you may taunt me, but that only shows how under-developed and needy you are.” That took all the fun out of it for her.

The dark regime we are currently experiencing feeds on others’ misery like air,so let’s deny them that satisfaction while resolutely affirming our standards. Among the most egregious developments in recent days is the Executive Order that seeks to turn OUR military AGAINST US citizens and a plan to turn federal lands into housing, though “we have a superfluity of 15 million vacant housing units being bought up by private equity,” according to Will Pattiz on Substack. The good news, also from Will Pattiz, is “Western Watersheds Project has joined a broad coalition of labor unions, nonprofits, and local governments in a major new lawsuit led by Protect Democracy, challenging the Trump administration’s unlawful reorganization of the federal government.”

Dealing with new assaults each day can cause us to tune out or focus only on what’s in front of our faces, but my time in our National Park System allows me to take the long view. The 2-3,000 year old Giant Sequoias in Sequoia National Park survive to inspire and sustain us today only because those among us with longer-range vision strove to protect them at the turn of the 20th Century, and our “Buffalo Soldiers” outmatched the ranchers and timber men who saw the grand old trees as expendable. The people coming behind us will have to craft their lives from whatever we leave behind.

Our beloved Rider Majora got “up close and personal” with the Sphinx on her recent visit.

Which brings us to the Pyramids of Egypt and the inscrutable Sphinx. Have you not wondered what message the ancients were trying to send us? It’s a subject of intense fascination for me.