Columbus OH

When Lew got up this morning he had planned to write an entry for the blog. And initially he feared he again would have to report that there was nothing to report. And at the physical level this true: Bobbi and he continue to experience considerable back/back-related pain, but neither are about to undertake any surgery. Of course there has been the usual visits to doctors (no change) and PT (Bobbi continues to increase the strength in her lower extremities, Lew maintains).

And in between medical visits they continued the usual routine activities - Bobbi's prison ministry, her other church-related activities, visits to her church friends, trips to the supermarket and the hair salon etc. In between entertained herself with email correspondance. Nothing new, nothing unusual, no justification for boring readers.

However, as he was waking up, Lew suddenly realized that, like most assumptions, it was not true that there was nothing to report, that nothing had happened all summer. On the contrary, the entire time Lew has been very busy on family history - not genealogy so much as the evolution of religion - many nights staying up late.

Cousin Michael has remarked that there seems to be little to do on the Franke line. In Europe, Louis Franke' maternal ancestors were nobility (but not very noble). As the internet developed, family members worked together to ferret out that line back through Charlemagne to Gallo-Romans (as well as some more or less curious branches such as Pope Adrian VI and the medieval Negrone family). However, from there back, surviving records really are too fragmentary for anything but speculation and myth. More fundamental, the ancient concept of history simply doesn't overlap enough with modern concepts to be useful. So it is hard to see where any of us can contribute a whole lot more to that quest.

Nevertheless, plenty remains for amateur genealogists to do. The Franke line itself has run into the proverbial brick wall in the netherlands. Somewhere I have a note that the unnamed ur-Francke was born there, but we have no details. Another note (or is it in the same one?) states that Helen Franke once had a book that gave this information, along with the connection to AH Francke, but it was lost in the 1920's. However, with all the resources now available, and more increasing daily, I can't imagine that this barrier will stand for long. A worthy project for Samantha.

Another opportunity lies in the fact that the Francke's were a hereditary clerical family. In pre-WWII Germany this gave them at least semi-noble status, hence they were acceptable for aristocratic marriages. In tracing both the Franke and Romberg lines backward the family already has documented many links with other clerical families - Cothenius, Dihn, Stoll, etc. Only the Romberg-Cothenius-Negrone line has been traced as far as the 12th century (thanks to cousin Samantha). Each of these clerical families need further digging.

However, Lew has developed a different line of thinking. Some time ago he realized that the density of these clerical connections translated out to a near identity of this family with the history of the church. Thus, while the specific family line fades out in the mists of the fourth century, the tradition can be traced further back by examining the history of the church itself. Now this turns out to be a lot easier. Conveniently, around the beginning of the century Eusebius collected the pre-Constantinian data. Of course he has been criticized (justly) for bias and unreliability. But since there exists much other documentation to supplement his, that unreliability causes little difficulty.

Over the centuries, a number of scholars have remarked upon the resemblance between the teachings of Jesus and those of Buddha. Publications on this topic certainly have hypothesized some fantastic (but not necessarily impossible) mechanisms.

But following Eusebius et al. backward in time, a simpler and entirely credible mechaninsm - supported by some hard evidence - also has been proposed. First of all, some of the fathers of the church (for example, Clement of Alexandria), specifically noted that Buddhists had influenced Jesus. Secondly, recent scholars have revised the date of Buddha's death to approximately -400. Third, the Mauryan king Ashoka (a convert) is well documented to have sent a series of missionary groups all over Asia in the years following -265, including at least one group to Alexandria, and another to Antioch (perhaps it would help understanding to note that there had been extensive commerce between Egypt and the Malabar Coast). The continuing success of the Alexandrian mission is supported by Buddhist symbols (the wheel) found on Alexandrian gravestones, the establishment of the monastic group which Philo said labelled themselves "Therapeutae" (a corruption of "theraveda", the Buddhist school of Ashoka) in the desert behind Alexandria, and the testimony of Clement.

Consider the testimony of the Evangelists in light of these facts. In chapter 2, Matthew explicitly stated that at the time of the slaughter of the innocents, the Holy Family escaped to Egypt. This must have occured before -4 because it was Herod the Great who ordered the atrocity. We know that at that time the largest Jewish community in the world was that of Alexandria. Therefore, the odds are quite high the the Holy Family gravitated to that city.

The gospels do not state how long the Holy Family remained in Egypt. Matthew states that they returned to Nazareth at some non-specific later date - "when those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead". That is no real help because it could have been almost anytime between Herod the Great's Death in -4 and Jesus' baptism in 29/30 AD. Matthew does mention that Joseph was afraid to go to Judea because Herod Archelaus reigned there in place of his father. Since Archelaus was deposed in 6 AD, this suggests that the family left no later. Luke seems to corroborate this terminus when he states that Jesus was 12 when he met with the (Sadducee) teachers in the temple. Now, were he born in -7 or -6, his 12th birthday, and therefore this scene, would have occurred about the time Archelaus was deposed.

From the foregoing, one legitimately may infer that Jesus remained in Alexandria from about age 2 to his 12th year. Certainly that would have provided very adequate time for him to learn from both the Buddhist missionaries and the Jewish teachers there. No wonder that the questions and answers of this 12 year old boy astonished the teachers in the temple (a far less cosmopolitan place than Alexandria). And no wonder that the Sermon on the Mount and many of his other teachings sound so Buddhist.

What I get out of all of this is that religion is not a fixed and static body of knowledge. As time passes, our knowledge and understanding increase, and the faith(s) evolves.

There is much more to this - Akhenaten and Moses is just one example. But this already is way to long, so I am arbitrarily postponing that to a later note.

Columbus OH

Winter arrived in Columbus on Labor Day, courtesy of the hurricane. The town went from insufferably hot and muggy cloudless skies to pleasant room temperatures (yes, I accept mornings in the 50's as "room temperature") under a cover of unrelieved gray. We can look forward to that gray until somewhere around memorial day, though of course the temperatures are going to go down in steps until the end of February.

The dogs are happy with the lower temperatures, though they would prefer something in the 40's, and apparantly could are less about clouds. In fact, last night it was drizzling, but they chugged outside happily, and were eager to return only because they knew it was feeding time (all the pets know when 9 PM rolls around, to the minute, and pester us insanely until we get the food out).

Columbus OH

Recently cousin Michael (Julius & Elizabeth's eldest son) sent an email about g'ma's old house in New Braunfels. He said that recently the US Post Office placed a bright yellow sign on the mailbox saying "vacant house". Predictably, someone tried (ineptly) to break in. Of course Michael immediately removed the sign that advertised the house as a target. But while that attempt failed, it is only a matter of time before someone succeeds and either removes all the valuables (?) or else trashes the place. So something more definative will have to be done.

Trying to secure the house physically is impossible. It is all wood, and any physical measure can only slow down and/or annoy a serious perp.

Social obstacles are more effective. One such obstacle is an alarm system that rings into the police department. However, many police departments (I can't answer for NB) have notoriously slow reaction times, thus their protection is limited. And such a system is an expense.

Another social obstacle is a commercial service that physically goes by and checks the house frequently; I've no doubt that such a service is available in NB. The downside of of such a service is (1) the expense, and (2) the limited amount of time that someone actually is on the premises.

The best social obstacle is an occupant. At this point Michael tells me he knows of no relative who wishes to live there. That being the case, I wish to offer rent-free occupancy to (1) Irene Bulgerin's clan; (2) more distant relatives, such as the Franke and Schudde clans; (3) someone referred by a local church. I am going to email Irene, and also will contact the local clergy. However, if any reader knows of anyone who would like to stay in the house, please do contact me.

* * * * *
MEDICAL REPORT:

LEW: the same. He spends too much time searching for files whose location he forgot to note.

BOBBI: still taking opiates, and had an MRI of the offending hip on Friday, but as yet does not have the report. Nevertheless, she was well enough to work the entire day today in the prison hospital.

BOBBI'S BROTHER-IN-LAW: died on August 19th.

PAUL: still going to his nursing program and doing well (the class curve-breaker).

SMOKEY: as usual, we are treating infected spots on his skin, including weekly medicated baths. But he is responding, and the current crop of infections are clearing up. Despite his 2 surgerized knees, he sometimes does bounce around like a puppy. But mostly he just louts around.

SAPPHIRE: age is slowing her down a bit, looks like she has some arthritis in her knees (which is to be expected). So is less eager to bounce around like a puppy. Another lout.

KITTY-POO: she has gained weight to 8 pounds. Thought by far the smallest, she remains the most aggressive of our pets, thus dominates and rules over the other 3. She also acts out her dominance on Lew, and he lets her.

LUCKY: our black panther slinks around, but vitiates the effect of his silent pace by demanding food in the loudest voice; he actually talks. And every night when Lew goes to bed, he runs in and lies down next to him, spending most of the time there until dawn breaks. He is overweight, so we restrict his food intake. However, he has developed a taste for people food: crackers, dry Cheerios (but not with milk), and his favorite - oatmeal cookies!