When It's Lent

. Lent is a period of time whose dates vary each year, but it always occurs near the beginning of Spring. Church history gives various accounts of its origin. The basic idea is a commemoration of Jesus' withdrawal to the desert of Israel which custom counts as "40 days." Its meaning to moderns has this in common: a seasonal retreat anchored by Mardi Gras/Ash Wednesday at the beginning and Easter at its end, and involving some personal interpretation of these three: contemplation or prayer; social justice or charitable action; and self-abnegation -- a personal discipline like some form of fasting or giving up something or some habit that is indulgent or extravagant.

. I'm acquainted with numerous people who are not all that religious, yet find a personal meaning in such a time of year. They treat it in a similar spirit to making New Year's resolutions, but with a more solemn intent.

. What does it mean to me? I think I have observed Lent in some way since I was old enough to understand it, probably age 7. The usual discipline was giving up chocolate for the duration, and later in life: beer! In Lent I believe we rediscover something within ourselves that stands above the ordinary in some way, morally, ethically or spiritually. I have used it as a kickoff for things I wanted to do but for which I needed extra motivation. The longstanding rhythm of annual practice enables me to call up resources that would seem harder to gather during other times.

. This year I decided to tackle obesity. As usual with my projects I overdid the preparation: setting up a special calendar, daily log forms to record foods consumed, even a graph of calorie deficit and so forth. The liturgical color of the season is purple, so I bought a purple folder to keep my materials in, including Nutritive Value of Foods, and all-inclusive 71-page table of calorie and fat content and such things.

. Over and above having something with which to observe Lent this year, I desired a "gift to myself" which seems a contradiction since I am missing something but contrarily am pleased about.

. The average daily caloric intake to maintain weight for a male of my age, height and build, without incorporating significant exercise regimens is 2500 calories. Any day I fall below that is "frosting on the cake. " (If taken literally that is something I won't see much of until my Easter basket arrives from the Chief Bunny!) According to my calculations I have lost seven pounds since Lent began on February 25. My wife says this appears to be working because it appeals to my love of science and quantification. To that I would add a personal resonance with religious mystery.

. Is it really possible that I will be 195 pounds by the end of July? Nothing would make me happier. Maybe hiking will become a pleasure again, rather than a trial.

We Humans

.   Someway or other I wanted to meet these other humans, mentioned in my post of September 2008, face-to-face, so to speak. As paleoanthropology progressed from its beginnings with the first recognized discovery of ancient human remains, the famous Neanderthal skull in 1856, more complete skeletons were found, and accompanying artifacts have given some hints of how the other hominids lived.
.   I wrote "lived" in the past tense, but I have a nagging feeling that some may still be around in the most remote recesses of the world. Maybe the source of stories about the yeti?)
.   In that post I shared my astonishment that three members of the human genus, homo could possibly have coexisted far into the current era, as late as 30,000 years ago and maybe even later. On the left are reconstructions (except for the top right individual -- a photograph) of the three human species supposedly still extant then.
.   If that were not enough of a shock, anthropologists Peter Brown and Michael Morwood recently discovered, on Flores Island in Indonesia, the skull of a small hominid. Given this and other evidence they discounted the explanation that this was merely a dwarf individual and concluded that it was a newly discovered species. The creature soon became popularly know as the "hobbit, " but the scientific name they gave was homo floresiensis after the name of the island of discovery. (On right is a comparison of height of modern adult female to reconstruction of newly discovered  homo floresiensis adult female.) Then I encountered this statement of the anthropologists:

      "Parts of seven other individuals... all diminutive, have been recovered as well as similarly small stone tools from horizons ranging from 94,000 to 13,000 years ago."

.   Could this get any more astounding? Perhaps yes...

     "Even more intriguing is the fact that Flores' inhabitants have incredibly detailed legends about the existence of little people on the island they call Ebu Gogo. Yet there are hints H. floresiensis could have lived on much later than this. The last legend featuring the mythical creatures dates to just 100 years ago."

. This would imply that four human species shared the Earth at least until the end of the Ice Age, maybe later?

   "Henry Gee, senior editor at Nature magazine, goes further. He speculates that species like H. floresiensis might still exist, somewhere in the unexplored tropical forest of Indonesia."

.   A companion legend/sighting, of a similar creature that locals named Orang Pendek, is this from neighboring Sumatra:
    
   "Orang Pendek (Indonesian for "short person") is the most common name given to a cryptid, or unconfirmed animal, that reportedly inhabits remote, mountainous forests on the island of Sumatra. The animal has allegedly been seen and documented for at least one hundred years by forest tribes, local villagers, Dutch colonists, and Western scientists and travelers. Consensus among witnesses is that the animal is a ground-dwelling, bipedal primate that is covered in short fur and stands between 80 centimetres (31 in) and 150 centimetres (59 in) tall."

.   I wish there were a photograph of either creature (they may be the same). That's almost on a par with discovering life on Mars!  Until then this reconstruction of an adult male "hobbit" by John Gurche  will have to do!  Gurche has done many other such reconstructtons and thus styles himself as a "paleo-artist." He incorporates any clues from environment and scientific findings to optimize his sculptures.

(Credit: John Hawks Blog for March 14, 2005 commenting on an image as shown in the National Geographic Explorer program the previous night. )