Truth? Or Consequences?

In my optimism and naivete of youth, I used to think all the pieces of the puzzle of life would fit together eventually. But now they're all scattered on the floor.

One more thing I have learned as I've studied history. Don't know who said this, but it's very true, "Those who don't learn from the past are doomed to repeat it." 

Amid all the false "news" and opinions disguised as news ( and this is nothing new; it's been with us from the Garden of Eden), I think it's the only thing that is true.

Or as Pilate is famously quoted, "What is Truth?"

Ancestry Mysteries and Surprises

I just sent for my Ancestry DNA test. Want to find out if the girl my mother's grandfather married in Indian Territory in 1902 was Native American...Mom kept insisting she was, but searches on the family tree have hit dead-ends.

At least all this geneology research is keeping me occupied this winter! On my father's side, I can get back all the way to the Lord Chamberlain of King Henry II of England (the 1100s), and possibly farther to William the Conqueror (1066). Before that it's a bit hazy, but I may even be descended from Kenneth MacAlpin, the first King of Scotland (born in 810 AD)...Fun to speculate, anyway!

And it gives me good material for historical fiction I'm working on writing.

Happy Twelfth Night

Okay, my Twelfth Night post got lost in cyberspace. Typical luck for me. On the Twelfth Day of Christmas (today) my true love sent to me 12 Lodgepole Pines, 11 Ponderosas*, 10 Grizzly Bears*. 9 Wolverines, 8 Wild Wolfpacks, 7 Trumpeter Swans, 6 Geese-a-honking, 5 Yogo Sapphires*, 4 Bitterroot flowers*, 3 Bald Eagles, 2 Sandhill Cranes, and a Western Meadowlark* in a Huckleberry patch.
*are Montana emblems

I think it might be kind of cool to go back in time to Medieval Europe where they actually did celebrate Christmas for 12 days.  What else was there to do in the middle of winter anyway?  Couldn't plant crops or make war on the neighbors.

Of course, their lives were probably harder and shorter back then.  But maybe that's not so bad--fewer years in this Vale of Tears.