One of the more curious pieces of mail I received is a handwritten postcard. It refers to me by name and was sent from Oklahoma City. It reads:
(Tech)
The Lord bless and keep you; The Lord make His face to shine upon you, and be gracious unto you: The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace. Numbers 6:24-26. May God bless you for all that you do.
It's not signed, and I've not been able to figure out who the handwriting belongs to. I thought it was nice, but I'd like to know who sent it. I have it penned up on a shelf beside my computer.
Pinned beside the postcard is the fortune from a fortune cookie I cracked open a few months ago. The fortune reads: "Beware the black dragon in your life for he is untrustworthy." I'd never got a fortune like that before and haven't since.
A little further down on the shelf is a hook on which hang several keys. I don't know what the keys open. I think one is for the gate in my backyard, but the others have slowly accumulated over the years. I'm positive at least three of them are for cars I no longer have. But I could be wrong. Does anyone else end up with orphan keys?
And finally in my little gallery of mysteries, I have a painted card that I think might be a Tarot card. I found the card in an old, deserted house that a friend was thinking about buying but didn't. The house had been empty for years and was in sad shape. The carpet was falling apart, and you could actually see through the roof. In a back bedroom, I found the card stuck in the baseboard. The face of the card shows a tree with animals and human faces in its branches. The back of the card is a red and green interlocking grid. I've always wondered where the card came from and how it came to be stuck in that baseboard. I look at it and make up stories, and this imagining keeps my muse primed when I'm writing fantasy.
I think everybody should have their own little mysteries. They fill our lives with everyday wonders. Sometimes it's better to have the questions than the answers.
Good night, and hey, surprise everyone by having a great day tomorrow.
10 comments:
I think keys reproduce on their own. I have a huge keyring filled with them, but like you, I don't know what they're for. I think some of them belong to locks in Oklahoma from when I lived there. I have no idea where the others came from. Perhaps the Key People from the Lock Universe are invading, and no one has noticed until now. :)
The card story is creepy. I can see that scene in my mind. The card sounds like a Tree of Life card. If you believe in such things, it's a good card.
Well, I don't believe in such things, but I thought the painting was nice. I will try to scan it and post here.
Tarot cards are cards that people use to predict the future. You mostly see them on old movies where the gypsy woman peers at them. There are a lot of different Tarot decks out there. Thousands of them.
Hermann Haindl is a German painter that is famous for his paintings and interpretations on Tarot cards. He painted "The Kabbalah Tree" which was then used by those "Tarot card making people" for the card Tree of Life or whatever they call it. I don't know about what it means or whatnot...but I think his paintings are beautiful in way. Very haunting, with layers and depth and color.
It sounds like your card...is that card.
Mine has always been a life full of questions. How can my hair be so straight and yet defy gravity at the same time? Why does it take me two weeks to lose 2 pounds, but I can gain 2 pounds in 3 days? Why can't chocolate be a vegetable? Doesn't it come from a bean? These are the kinds of things that keep me up at night. Well, that and I work the night shift and patients are always calling me for something...
Michelle, I've since been informed by one of more mystical friends that my card is probably not a Tarot card, but is probably from a self-revelation deck. SRDs are decks that people use to reveal things about themselves. Well, learn something new every day. But it could still be by that painter.
FF, keys are naughty. I'll have to watch them more closely or separate them.
Crystal, did you know that the coca plant is threatened by a fungus? It's serious business and also why the price of chocolate is slowly rising.
What?? Why haven't I heard of the campaign to save the cocoa bean? Hasn't anyone started one? Can we grow them in little pots on our patioes? (Oh, look...more questions in my life -- thanks, Tech!)
Some information about the future fate of chocolate from the CABI commodities page. (http://www.cabi-commodities.org/Acc/ACCrc/ACCrcCOCbp.htm)
Cocoa diseases are a major constraint to cocoa production. There are a number of potentially serious diseases attacking cocoa, the most important of which in Africa is the fungal disease black pod, and which is responsible for estimated losses of about 44% of total global production every year. The disease attacks pods at all stages of their development. While there are several species of fungi that can cause black pod, two are particularly damaging economically: Phytophthora megakarya and Phytophthora palmivora, with the first one causing 100% loss locally in some areas of West Africa. Brown pod rot is much less serious than black pod, and is caused by the fungus Botryodiplodia theobromae. It is a secondary disease, which means it can only infect through a wound, or through infections caused by other diseases, and which can cause dieback (progressive death of branch tissue from the tip inwards).
Cocoa swollen shoot virus (CSSV) is another important disease in Africa.The virus is transmitted by sucking pests, mostly mealybugs. It affects leaves and pods, and causes stem and root swellings. Infected trees may suffer from severe defoliation and dieback, and the pods are smaller and malformed. In susceptible varieties of cocoa such as Amelonado, death of the trees after infection with severe strains of the virus can occur within 2-3 years, with yield losses of up to 25% in the first year.
In Central and South America, witches' broom, caused by the fungus, Crinipellis perniciosa, is one of the most serious constraints to cocoa production (considered to cause about 25% loss of the world crop). This disease halved Brazilian cocoa production in the early 1990s.The fungus attacks developing buds or flowers, causing them to grow abnormally, forming structures called 'brooms'. It can also attack young pods, which die soon after infection. The seedlings that grow from the seeds of infected pods may also develop brooms from buds, and often die during the first year.
Frosty pod, or monilia pod rot, caused by Moniliophthora roreri, is another serious fungal disease in the Americas. Damage caused by the disease varies from less than 25% in some regions to total loss of production in others. Most of the damage is done when younger pods are attacked, and the pod dies before it reaches even half of its potential size. The necrotic tissue on the outside of the pod becomes covered by a thick, felty fungal growth which at first appears frosty white, the symptom from which the disease takes its name.
Vascular streak dieback, caused by the fungus Oncobasidium theobromae, is a problem in South and Southeast Asia, and can potentially be very damaging to young seedlings (less than 10 months old). As the name suggests it attacks the vascular tissues of the tree, which transport water and nutrients around the plant. This causes leaf drop and new shoots of infected plants rarely grow more than 20 cm before dying. A characteristic yellowing of leaves is also seen. The vascular elements become discoloured by brown streaks, giving the disease its name, and the cambium, the layer under the bark, turns a rusty brown. It also occasionally attacks the vascular system of developing pods, although infected pods show no external symptoms.
Verticillium wilt, or sudden death of cocoa, caused by Verticillium dahliae is another vascular disease. An increasingly serious problem in parts of Brazil and has been reported in Colombia. This disease was responsible for the failure of widespread cocoa cultivation in Uganda in the 1960s. Chemical control of Verticillium wilt of cocoa is not effective as the pathogen is soil borne and the host a perennial crop; breeding for resistance is the only realistic means of durable disease control.
More about chocolate from the same web page:
No one can pinpoint exactly where cocoa originates from, or for how long people have been growing it. It is believed to have originated from several localities in the area between the foot of the Andes and the upper reaches of the Amazon, in South America. We do know that it was being grown in the region at least 1000 years ago by the Maya Indians, who found that when roasted, the seeds (or beans) of the cocoa tree produced an aroma so divine, they believed the tree was a gift from the god Quetzacoatl. From the roasted beans, they made a drink, often used in ceremonies and rituals, called xocolatl, from which the word 'chocolate' is derived.
More than a millennium later, chocolate is big business. The USA alone, the world's biggest consumer, eats between 1 and 1.4 million tonnes of chocolate every year, and the global trade in confectionery, of which chocolate has the lion's share, is estimated at about US$ 80 billion per year. Cocoa has become a vital export crop for many countries, particularly in West Africa. It is also a major foreign exchange earner for some Central and South American countries and, to a lesser extent, for South and Southeast Asia.
The cocoa tree belongs to the genus Theobroma, meaning 'food of the Gods' in Greek. There are several species in this genus, but only one, Theobroma cacao, is grown commercially. It is widely grown in West Africa, Central and South America, and South and Southeast Asia. Some is grown on estates, but the vast majority (estimates vary from 70 to 90%), is grown by smallholder farmers cultivating less than 3 hectares. Cocoa is, ecologically speaking, a forest plant, and has evolved to grow under shady conditions. Most of it is now grown under shade trees including: (i) forest trees left standing after the initial clearance of land; (ii) food crops including plantain; herbaceous plants and shrubs; and (iii) specially planted shade trees. Some cocoa, particularly in Côte d'Ivoire, is grown in direct sunlight, and in fact, under this system the trees are more productive in the short term. However, crop management requires much higher inputs, partly because some insect pests and weeds are much more problematic than in shady conditions, and production is lower in the long term.
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