By: Northern Farmer

Northern Farmer — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 16:52:48 +0000

Son of a gun Mark, your kinda a good writer! Reminds me of the old TV show Bonanza, was watching that years ago and Ben sat down on some real nice hay bales out there in early days Nevada. Now I wondered, where’s there baler and tractor, cause they never did show it
The other night I was watching a show on TV, remember we only have Sky Angel, no regular TV at all and they were showing the Holy Land, were showing where David took on Goliath and it was down right beautiful, then they’d go to the next valley, pine forests and beautiful scenery, well I couldn’t hardly believe my eyes. After a lifetime of watching Hollywood movies and different productions showing Bible stories I always figured it was a barren wasteland, but then again I always wondered how all them people could survive there if the whole place looked like Arizona, hmm. It musta really been a land of “milk and honey”!

By: mark sullivan

mark sullivan — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 02:51:05 +0000

You story of the “Calf that wouldn”t Die”, remindes me of some of the things in my world growing up, that connected me with the Biblical world. Growing up in Arizona, allowed me to sympathies with people in the Bible, in ways, people from cold places couldn’t. The climate of the holy land is very similer to the southwestern U.S. In fact, many Bible films were made there. Many plants from the Mediterranean, and the Holy Land, were my backyard shrubbery. Pomegranates trees, mentioned in the Old Testament, were backyard trees in Tucson. Ever had a pomegranate fight? That hard rind smarts! But the red juice tastes great in the hot sun. Date palms lined roads. Just like they do at the ancient city of Jericho. When the Bible says”so and so went up to a tamarix tree and sat under it”, I understand, I’ve sat under many of them. They are now such a pest as a non-native plant, that they compete with native cottonwood, willow riparian woodland in the southwest. Almond groves are found all around the Tucson area, blooming every spring like they have since biblical times. Olive trees drop their fruit all over sidewalks. They are lovely trees, but the pollen they shed is hayfever heaven. Acacia are found everywhere, just like in the Middle East. All those herbs like hyssop, thyme, rosemary etc, are part of peoples gardens. Even the Mediterranean gecko has set up shop, along with the native species. My best friends had two magnificent fig trees in their yard, You get the picture. Visualizing those Bible stories is easy, when half the landscape around you comes from Bible lands. I got a chuckle, looking at a picture of Jeruselem, showing huge prickly pear cactus growing wild outside the city walls. Cactus, other than “rhipsalis” species native to Madagascar, are only found in the New World. The Apostles, never saw one. Yet, there they were, somebody had brought them from America, and they grew lustily.I was watching the movie “Ben Hur”, one night, and during the part of the movie where Ben Hur visits his Mother and Sister at the Leper Colony, I noticed, a VERY large Blue Agave, The kind they make tequila with, growing there in the Leper Colony. I wonder how many other people besides me, noticed this blooper over the years? I can’t watch Westerns for much the same reasons. Growing up near Tombstone means I see every little discrepency in the movie, from what the real Old West was like in the real world. You might say…..I know to much. Better if you had never seen it. Your innocence is still intact, so to speak. Heh. Heh

Comments on: The Parable Calf

By: Northern Farmer

By: mark sullivan