History

There's a farmhouse near Corner School that I pass each day. This morning a white horse with brown patches was walking through the pasture. A Palomino in sage. It looked like a Georgia O'Keeffe painting...a beautiful sight indeed. I know you must think I'm making this up, but a moment later I also saw a Great Blue Heron standing as still as a statue near the edge of a small farm pond.
As I drove toward Birmingham, I completed "The Rise and Fall of Alexandria" . It was a massive book (audio) which took me several weeks to complete. According to the authors Justin Pollard and Howard Reid, the great library of Alexandria was not sacked and burned by the Islamic armies as some history books relate, but died a slow death at the hand of Christian fundamentalist a few centuries after the death of Christ.
Most historians agree that the political climate around the city which was built on the minds of some of the greatest thinkers who have ever walked this earth, turned harsh towards anyone who believed or studied anything Pagan....like math, astronomy, philosophy or science.
It is probably true that the Roman Julius Caesar made the first scar in 47 A.D. when he invaded the Egyptian city in pursuit of his rival Pompey. He was burning the docks but the wind swept embers inland and several of the library's many buildings burned as scholars watched helplessly. Priceless books on geography, physics and medicine were forever lost.
I'm a lover of books and it pains me deeply just thinking about all the knowledge that went up in smoke or was destroyed by book burning mobs who somehow got the idea that feeding the mind was somehow un-Christian.