I made this photo a couple of years ago.  I can remember it clearly.  Not where I was exactly… but WHAT I was thinking.  When I shot this… it felt like the universe was revealing one of its beautiful mysteries…. and wonders.   It was as if the setting sun was singing to that flower, and back again.

But you know, there are all sorts of mysteries on this planet.  Things, which just cannot be explained by human, nor scientific measures.  Oh sure… there are all the usual suspects.  The Pyramids of Giza, the mystery of Easter Island and the Moai statues,  the great Aztec works, Stonehenge,  crop circles and more.

But how about things like The Antikythera Mechanism?   These days it looks like a crusted block with gears and such.  BUT…. it is an incredibly intricate analogue computer…. which was found in a shipwreck near Greece in the year 1900.

The device was used to determine the positions of celestial bodies using a mind-bogglingly complex series of bronze gears.  Now…. in and of itself, this whole deal would already be impressive.

But the “when of it” is even more intriguing.   It was created more than 1,000 years before anything even approaching its level of technological complexity and workmanship was made.

This calculating computer came long before our modern understanding of astronomy and physics. The Antikythera Mechanism was built over 1,600 years before Galileo was born, and over 1,700 years before Isaac Newton was born.  Drop an apple on my head, I’ll tell you.  Who could have made such a thing?

Not impressed?  Okay.  What about this.

The Dancing Plague of 1518.    Now get this.  On a summer’s day in the town of Strasbourg…. a woman began dancing wildly in the street. That women danced all dang day… and well into the night.  And she kept going and going.  Day and night.  (I am not bull-crapping you here, either.)

Within a week, 34 others had joined her, dancing as though they were possessed.  These folks were relentless.  They danced their little feet off…. without stopping….. for days on end… AND….. for no apparent reason. Within a month, the number of dancers had reached 400.

Physicians were called in to document the event and try to find a solution. And all the while, the dancing worsened. Many became ill or died as a result of exhaustion, strokes, or heart attacks.

So what did the authorities decide?  Well…. it wasn’t the Puritanical Witch Hunt that you’d find in the U.S…..  I’ll tell you that.  Those authorities all decided it was best if they danced it out of their systems.

Gild halls and a grain market were opened to the dancers, and a wooden stage was even constructed for them. Musicians were even brought in to keep those affected moving.  To this day we still have no answer for this truly unbelievable historical event.

I just think when the rhythm hits you …. it hits you.  Happy feet take over.  And that’s all she wrote.

My only advice tonight… is this.   Pay attention to the wonders of the universe.  It is trying to tell YOU something.   Maybe it is telling you to dance… when the sun sings to the flowers.  Maybe.

“A man is a very small thing, and the night is very large and full of wonders.”   – Lord Dunsany

“The few wonders of the world only exist while there are those with the sight to see them.”  — Charles de Lint