Hehe...the shot of Martha's Vineyard MSNBC is using is of Gay Head...a nude beach.

[Atman]

I wonder if Obama and Michelle are hangin' out...so to speak,

[SpiralHawk]

1. Aquinnah - the old name

the beautiful name for the beautiful place - where the beautiful giant Maushop often caught whales by the tail, then roasted them on the beach.

Every year Maushop would invite everyone - friends and enemies alike - to a huge party on the beach: Whale Roast & Clam Bake. Yay Maushop ! Party on, Giant Dude.

[SpiralHawk]

2. the cliffs of clay at Aquinnah are all the colors of the rainbow

It is remembered that Creator created all the colors of human beings from the Aquinnah clay of many colors. That is why the world is so beautiful, with so many different kinds of people.

[SpiralHawk]

3. One of the great sacred sites of the earth, here the Obamas may hear from

the Puchwudginen if they are fortunate. At any rate, they should be able to come by some of the sacred wampum shell, which carry memory from a time before memory was gifted to the Two Leggeds.

[snooper2]

4. Is the memory made up of matter?

[SidDithers]

5. They're pretty rocks...

and that's all.

Sid

[SpiralHawk]

6. It's just another crappy sunset at Aquinnah...

...for material guys and gals. What's the point? At some time we will all just freaking die any way, and forget all these damn stupid pretty rocks and shit anyway. Might as well just stay home and watch Fox on the Tube.

To help you out Sid, I've canceled your reservations for a seat at the Whale Roast & Clam Bake.

[SidDithers]

7. Can't we appreciate pretty rocks for what they are...

or a nice sunset for what it is, without having to assign some mystical mumbo-jumbo to it?

Sid

[SpiralHawk]

8. I not assigning mystical mumbo jumbo.

I am reporting to you the tales of Aquinnah. They have been held in the teaching of the Aquinnah Wampanoag for many thousands of years, and they have brought great beauty and goodness to the people for long centuries.

You can trash their understandings of their ancestral lands if you wish, just as the Pilgrims did of yesteryear, but you are dead wrong in thinking I made it up or that the Puchwudginen will not speak to those who have have not been poisoned by the Invaders' Soul Disease of Materialism.

[Atman]

9. The clay is "sacred." Supposedly you aren't even supposed to touch it.

What is truly amazing is that those cliffs are entirely CLAY. I've been sitting on the beach and watched entire sections break off and fall into the sea. Unknowing tourists like to break off chunks of it and body-paint themselves (or each other), but that is very much a no-no. I appreciate your pointing out the tales of Aquinnah. I don't think it's "mystical mumbo jumbo." The place is absolutely breath-takingly beautiful. Not surprised the Aquinnah Wampanoag believed it to be "mystical."

.

[Withywindle]

10. I like your posts a lot, SpiralHawk

I learn a great deal.


I think even if one doesn't believe in anything at all beyond the material, there's still value in poetry, metaphor, and folklore, and that oral tradition that's survived a long time is still worthy of some respect.