Friday 26 August 2016

Men of Yore: Frederick Burnham

This is another in a series of posts about men from history who have either achieved great things in one form or another by pushing boundaries: either in themselves or in society or science or exploration of some form. Boundary pushing and growth is what men do, it's their nature: to grow and push outwards. We, as men, are the frontiers men, the first to discover/uncover new territory, in a metaphysical sense (i.e. including both material and the immaterial) that is later colonised and 'civilised' by the rest of humanity.


Frederick Burnham (aged 20) (Source)


Frederick Russell Burnham DSO (May 11, 1861 – September 1, 1947) was an American scout and world-traveling adventurer. He is known for his service to the British South Africa Company and to the British Army in colonial Africa, and for teaching woodcraft to Robert Baden-Powell in Rhodesia. He helped inspire the founding of the international Scouting Movement
Burnham was born on a Lakota Sioux Indian reservation in Minnesota where he learned the ways of American Indians as a boy. By the age of 14, he was supporting himself in California, while also learning scouting from some of the last of the cowboys and frontiersmen of the American Southwest. Burnham had little formal education, never finishing high school. After moving to the Arizona Territory in the early 1880s, he was drawn into the Pleasant Valley War, a feud between families of ranchers and sheepherders. He escaped and later worked as a civilian tracker for the United States Army in the Apache Wars. Feeling the need for new adventures, Burnham took his family to southern Africa in 1893, seeing Cecil Rhodes's Cape to Cairo Railway project as the next undeveloped frontier. 
Burnham distinguished himself in several battles in Rhodesia and South Africa and became Chief of Scouts. Despite his U.S. citizenship, his military title was British and his rank of major was formally given to him by King Edward VII. In special recognition of Burnham's heroism, the King invested him into the Companions of the Distinguished Service Order, giving Burnham the highest military honors earned by any American in the Second Boer War. He had become friends with Baden-Powell during the Second Matabele War in Rhodesia, teaching him outdoor skills and inspiring what would later become known as Scouting. Burnham returned to the United States, where he became involved in national defense efforts, business, oil, conservation, and the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). 
During World War I, Burnham was selected as an officer and recruited volunteers for a U.S. Army division similar to the Rough Riders, which Theodore Roosevelt intended to lead into France. For political reasons, the unit was disbanded without seeing action. After the war, Burnham and his business partner John Hays Hammond formed the Burnham Exploration Company; they became wealthy from oil discovered in California. Burnham joined several new wilderness conservation organizations, including the California State Parks Commission. In the 1930s, he worked with the BSA to save the big horn sheep from extinction. This effort led to the creation of the Kofa and Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuges in Arizona. He earned the BSA's highest honor, the Silver Buffalo Award, in 1936, and remained active in the organization at both the regional and national level until his death in 1947. To symbolise the friendship between Burnham and Baden-Powell, the mountain beside Mount Baden-Powell in California was formally named Mount Burnham in 1951.

(Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Russell_Burnham)

Frederick Burnham may not have contributed to humanity in any great way: he didn't make any scientific discoveries, better the lives of the working classes (besides founding the American Boy Scouts), explore any uncharted lands, or indeed chart lands.  But he was on the fore-front of the European frontier as it was expanding in the 19th century, which makes him one of the pioneers of the age.

Reading through his life is a testament to the type of life he lived: exciting!  You can't call his life dull, that's for sure.  And that's what life is about when it comes to the frontier, excitement, the great un-known.  "What are you going to do tomorrow?"  Someone asks.  "I've no idea!" you reply with enthusiaism.  That's what it's about.  Freedom, liberty, doing your own Will.  And that's why Fred is on the Men of Yore list, for being a man of the frontier.




P.S. If you're interested in a fuller and longer account of his life THIS webpage is an agreeable alternative to his Wikipedia entry.


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Friday 5 August 2016

Men of Yore: Stephen Harding

This is another in a series of posts about men from history who have either achieved great things in one form or another by pushing boundaries: either in themselves or in society or science or exploration of some form. Boundary pushing and growth is what men do, it's their nature: to grow and push outwards. We, as men, are the frontiers men, the first to discover/uncover new territory, in a metaphysical sense (i.e. including both material and the immaterial) that is later colonised and 'civilised' by the rest of humanity.


Stephen Harding, O.Cist. (French: Étienne Harding, died 28 March 1134), was an English-born monk and abbot, who was one of the founders of the Cistercian Order in what is now France. He is honoured as a saint in the Catholic Church.

Life
Harding was born in Sherborne, Dorset, in the Kingdom of England, and spoke English, Norman, French and Latin.[1] He was placed in Sherborne Abbey at a young age, but eventually left the monastery and became a travelling scholar, journeying with one devout companion, into Scotland and afterwards to Paris and then to Rome.[2] He eventually moved to Molesme Abbey in Burgundy, under the Abbot Robert of Molesme (c. 1027-1111).

When Robert left Molesme to avoid its corruption and laxity, Harding and Alberic of Cîteaux went with him; but upon the complaint of the monks, they were called back again — Robert, by an order of the pope, the other two by the local bishop. The young Harding was then made superior. Seeing no hope of a sufficient reformation, Robert appointed another abbot at Molesme; then, with Alberic, Harding and twenty-one other monks, received permission from Hugh, Archbishop of Lyons, and legate of the Holy See, to retire to Citeaux, a marshy wilderness five leagues from Dijon where they formed a new, more austere, monastery.[2] Eudes, afterwards Duke of Burgundy, built them a little church, which was placed under the patronage of the Blessed Virgin, as all the churches of the Cisterians from that time have been.

Robert was initially abbot of Cîteaux Abbey, returning to Molesme after a year. Alberic then took over, serving as abbot until his death in 1109.[2] Stephen, the youngest of the three, became the third abbot of Cîteaux. However, very few were joining the community and the monks were suffering from hunger and sickness. It seemed for a while as if the new order was destined to die out.[3] In 1112,Bernard of Clairvaux entered the community, bringing with him thirty companions.[4] Between 1112 and 1119, a dozen new Cistercian houses were founded to accommodate those joining the young order. Harding's powers as an organiser were exceptional, he instituted the system of general chapters and regular visitations. In 1119, he wrote the "Carta Caritatis" (Charter of Charity), an important document for the Cistercian Order, establishing its unifying principles.[4]

Stephen Harding served Cîteaux Abbey as its abbot for twenty-five years. While no single person is considered the founder of the Cistercian Order, the shape of Cistercian thought, and its rapid growth in the 12th century, was arguably due to the leadership of Harding. Insisting on simplicity in all aspects of monastic life, he was largely responsible for the severity of Cistercian architecture.[5] In 1133, he resigned as head of the order, because of age and infirmity.[4] He died on 28 March 1134,[6] and was buried in the tomb of Alberic, his predecessor, in the cloister of Cîteaux.[5]

In a joint commemoration with Robert of Molesme and Alberic, the first two abbots of Cîteaux, Stephen Harding's feast day is celebrated by the Cistercian Order, on 26 January.

(Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Harding)

It's often  said that 'women are a civilising force on men'.  Are they heck.  Monasteries are proof that men don't need the influence of 'a good women' in order to become civilised and create great works.  Some great achievements have come out of monasteries over the past millenia: architecture, agricultural technology, the written word, medical care and so on.  Monasteries from the East and monasteries from the West prove to us that men like can live together and peaceful and fruitful lives, and that they don't need a woman to 'civilise' them.

In the west one of the more remarkable monastic orders are the Cistercians.  They contributed greatly to the development of agriculture.  So much did they contribute to the advancement of agriculture that some historians have speculated that if it wasn't for the protestant revolution and the dissolution of the monasteries in England, that the Industrial Revolution may have occured a few hundred years sooner.  Which means for thee and me we could be taking vacations on Mars ourselves rather than watching sci-fi movies about Mars instead.  Shame really, I rather fancy having a trundle around the base of Mount Olympus and having a butchers in the souvineer shop..


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Monday 1 August 2016

Alternative Lyrics to Well Known Songs 44 - Hilly Hilly

('Hilly Hilly' is based on 'Jimmy Jimmy' by 'The Undertones')


Anyone seen the vid of Hilly Clinton lying for 14 minutes straight.  Crikey moses!  14 minutes!  And people think she's a suitable candidate for president?!  Well, maybe, if you think that sociopathy is a good qualification for presidency.  Trump may have his faults, but I'm not aware that he's ever lied on such a scale as Hilly.

That said, it isn't my country, so I don't really have any right to say that people should vote for one candidate over the other.

Enough rambling about the political carnival, on with the real carnival.  Maestro, cue the music!


Play the music video above and sing along using the alternative lyrics below.


# Hilly Hilly #
Little Billy's wife,
she wasn't very bright.
Lying all the time,
Every day and night.


Hilly Hilly.
Hilly Hilly. (Ohhh)
Hilly Hilly.
Poor old Hilly look at her nose!


"I remember landing there..
..under sniper fire."
She claimed in Bosnia,
It turns out she's a liar.


Hilly Hilly.
Hilly Hilly. (Ohhh)
Hilly Hilly.
Poor old Hilly look at her nose!


Hilly Hilly.
Hilly Hilly. (Ohhh)
Hilly Hilly.
Poor old Hilly look at her nose!


She was the Sec. of State,
and sent an unsafe 'mail.
Then lied to the FBI.
It's enough to make you pale.


Hilly Hilly.
Hilly Hilly. (Ohhh)
Hilly Hilly.
Poor old Hilly look at her nose!


Hilly Hilly.
Hilly Hilly. (Ohhh)
Hilly Hilly.
Poor old Hilly look at her nose!
(Poor old Hilly look at her nose!)


Hilly Hilly.
Hilly Hilly. (Ohhh)
Hilly Hilly.
Poor old Hilly look at her nose!



[End of lyrics.]