Digging Through History

-
Hello everyone. A few weeks ago I was flipping through some old issues of Essayons Forward, the magazine for the Gulf Region Division, trying to find some historical articles on a few projects. You can see the five years worth of Essayons Forward at this link http://www.grd.usace.army.mil/news/Essayonsforward/index.asp

As I was doing this, I thought...it would be so much easier to locate an article if there was some type of database listing all the articles. Well, instead of wishing it was so, I got to making one! It's nothing fancy. Just used Excel and created a record of the 400+ articles that have appeared in Essayons since 2004. I listed them by sector (water, energy, security, justice, etc.), title and author. It took about three weeks, working on it here and there as I had time, but it is now finished.

While doing that I came across an article that Steve Wright wrote in 2004 about the historical/religious significance of Iraq -- rather the region that is today known as Iraq. I really liked the list and thought I'd share some of it with you. If you would like to see Steve's original article it is in Volume 1, Issue 8, page 19.

- The Garden of Eden was in Iraq, nestled at the 'cradle of civilization' in Mesopotamia, where the Tigris and Euphrates meet.
- Noah built the Ark in Iraq.
- The Tower of Babel was in Iraq.
- Abraham was from Ur, in southern Iraq.
- Issac's wife Rebekah is from Nahor, in Iraq.
- Jacob met Rachel in Iraq.
- Jonah preached in Nineveh, located near Mosul, Iraq.
- Assyria, in Iraq, conquered the ten tribes of Israel.
- Amos cried out in Iraq.
- Nebuchadnezzer, King of Babylon, carried the Jews captive into Iraq.
- Daniel was in the lion's den in Iraq.
- Ezekiel preached in Iraq.
- The wise men were from Iraq.
- Peter preached in Iraq.

It's incredible to think I'm in a land full of such amazing history. When I'm studying my Bible it does put things in a whole new perspective being in the land where many of these things occurred.

Not to change gears too dramatically but I did have one other thing I wanted to share. A few weeks ago my co-worker Rick helped Jessica Ramirez from Newsweek with a story she was doing on the effort to revive Iraq's rail system. The following link takes you to her article and a very nice video she put together. I would recommend watching the video if you have a few minutes. http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/checkpointbaghdad/archive/2008/12/19/the-baghdad-commute.aspx

Notice that the article is on the Newsweek's blog about Iraq - Checkpoint Baghdad. I do not know if it ran in the actual hard copy.

It is often said...and I'm sure I've said it a time or two...that there is no good news about Iraq reaching the States. It's just the latest bombings and causualties. Something I'm discovering to a much greater extent since I've been here is there is a lot of information available on news service blogs and other nontraditional news sources. It just takes some effort to find it. So needless to say I am enjoying the discovery and the learning experience of being here.

As always thank you for the prayers. And all of you saying you can't figure out how to post comments...go grab a teenager and get them to show you how to post. If I can blog...you can post! :)

Love, Nicole

Comments

  1. Thomas DalrympleJanuary 6, 2009 at 2:07 PM

    Honey, you know how I hate history. ;-) The depth it gives us in our studies is awesome - it helps to add another demintion.

    T

    PS. I can comment!!!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Letter I Never Wrote

-
Image
A draft of this blog post has been sitting in my unpublished queue for many years now. You'll see that the book I start the post with is one I read in 2020. This post is about the death of my mother's oldest sister, my Aunt Almeda.   I noticed that death, grief, and illness were themes in some of my reading in 2023. I read John Gunther's Death Be Not Proud, Laurel Braitman's What Looks Like Bravery , Elizabeth Alexander's The Light of the World , Terry Tempest Williams' Refuge , Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking , and Suleika Jaouad's Between Two Kingdoms .   Recently I've found a lot of creative inspiration from Suleika Jaouad. There is a documentary on Netflix right now called American Symphony and she recently did a nearly 2-hour-long interview with Rich Roll for his podcast . I would strongly recommend both, as well as her book.  I got the feeling that now might be the time to complete this post. So, here it is.   *** The last book I r
Read more

Walking in History...Visiting Normandy during the D-Day Anniversary

-
Image
This is probably a blog I should do in two posts but I'm going to try and do it in one.  I'll try to minimize my words and let the photos tell the story. Over World War II's D-Day anniversary, Tom and I traveled to Normandy on a 3-day USO tour.  It was a whirlwind, jam-packed trip that maximized every moment of what were 13 to 14 hour-long days.  I had been looking forward to the trip for months and believe that visiting that historic site during the anniversary is a trip of a lifetime.   In two-and-a-half days we visited three of the D-Day invasion beaches (Gold, Omaha and Utah); visited the American and the German cemeteries; visited Point du Hoc and Saint-Mere-Eglise; went to the Airborne Museum (although we didn't stay long because of the crowds) and the Museum of the Battle of Normandy (which is a VERY good museum); we saw the Longues-sur-Mer Gun Battery and concluded the visit at Pegasus Bridge.  If you've ever seen the movie "The Longest Day" it
Read more

The Joys of Nature Journaling

-
Image
Last month I went to a daylong Introduction to Nature Journaling workshop led by Roseann Beggy Hanson of Exploring Overland and hosted at the Amerind Museum . I knew nothing about nature journaling ahead of the class. It just sounded like something that might complement my own personal journaling and the House Journal I've been keeping since we moved into the new house in February 2023.  In my House Journal I record seasonal observations from Dalrymple Ranch, as my girlfriend Sydney calls our place. Since I walk the pups 2-3 times a day, I notice when a type of wildlfower first appears or when a particular cactus blooms. I also try to note when we have snow or a big rain storm. And while I don't do it as regularly, I do record some wildlife observations too. Thanks to keeping my journal last year I learned that there is an order in which our cacti tend to bloom. Hedgehogs bloom before the prickly pear. Cholla bloom after the prickly pear have started and then barrel cactus
Read more