Mesa Verde... Are There Lessons in the Ruins?

With a Free camp in Mesa Verde we hung out for several days... and learned a few things I hadn't picked up on before...

*Cliff Palace ruins in Mesa Verde*

It seems the "Center" of this society was down in Chaco Canyon, SE of here. And there, as in the ruin above... few people actually lived there. The ruin pictured above has something like 125 rooms... but near as the research can tell, only 100 or a few more lived here.

There are also something like 25, ceremonial kivas there. Well, you don't need that much space, and that many Ceremonial chambers for that many people...

And then the seemingly unimportant and "Trivia" information came along to me... The folks at Chaco for instance... were taller and lived LONGER than the "regular" folks around. Why would that be?

Chaco was used to "Warehouse" grain and supplies "Contributed" from the outlying people, for the "General Welfare"... So the elites, living in the "palace" had it easy, and three squares a day...

Yup... The Non elites..."Contributed"... sound familiar? Well... the system finally imploded... The hogs at the top were fat and living long while the poor slugs at the bottom filled the trough... hmmmmm...

Nothing new under the sun is there? The more things change... the more they stay the same... "Politicians" seem to be spreading the same old fertilizer that they have for thousands of years...

With the same old result. Ahhhh... lessons from the past ;)

So... we took a walk up a trail that used to be, many years ago, the entrance road for this park...

There's nice hikes and plenty of nice country here... and Free made it easy to stay... but as we hung around for most of a week, it seemed we were the only ones. Folks rolled in late and left early...

"Gotta make miles. Have to hurry, we don't have much time! We got a lot to see so we gotta roll!"

Been there done that and learned my lesson. You end up rolling so fast that it all becomes a blur and you end up not really seeing anything... and learning less.

A couple years back we'd walked through the Spruce Tree house ruin... This time we decided to take a "tour" that went by the Cliff Palace...

You enter into it by way of a narrow cleft in the rock they've set and carved some steps into... steep and narrow...

It drops down onto a fairly level stretch that winds around and turns back into the alcove that holds the ruin...

The trees are all just leafing out... and it was a cool early afternoon... so a nice walk...

What it must be... in all that sun baked rock on a July afternoon... It's unlikely I'll ever know!

*Early View as you approach the Cliff Palace*

The echos are pretty strong down in there... Hard to carry on a private conversation when it's bouncing off all the rocks! ;)

One thing that's always struck me is the wide variation in the quality of the masonry work in these ruins. Some of what appears to be early work is pretty fine... and then... later and what may be repairs... is as shoddy as you can imagine... makes a guy wonder what was goin' on?

Early work was Co-operation? and later was... um ... "forced" labor, as the culture "progressed"? We'll never really know will we?

One thing they said... if you look on the lower left of this pic... where the structure rises up and touches the ceiling rock?  That is where the water seep is, and it's supposed to be a "Later" construction... so, it appears that "Someone" built a "structure" to protect/control the water source... 'cause there's none running down the canyon out in front... hmmmmm...

*4 of the 25 kivas at Cliff Palace*

*Stairs cut into sandstone*

Yeah... you often hear about the "Noble Red Man", Or the intricacy, sensitivity and depth of eastern culture... how the cultures of the past were so much more peaceful and co-operative... how our own culture is shallow and materialistic...

Then you come to find little hints about reality...

Here at Mesa Verde, and Over at Chaco... They got talked into siphoning off huge amounts of their time and energy, to build great "edifices" like here... Where only the Elite, lived...

Great "Edifices" like... WE... do... 

... when they really needed to be working their crops, and improving the personal lives of their immediate families...

They allowed themselves to be diverted from their true Life... until the weight of the "leadership" collapsed their culture...

Though people claim great differences... Skin color, culture, understanding... clothes change... technology changes... everything SEEMS to change...

But in the end... People... whoever they are... where ever they live... whoever their father was... They are all the Same. The same needs... the same wants... the same fears... the same sorrows... The same eyes on life... seemingly saddled with the same political parasites...

We climbed out, first going up some stairs the Park Service cut into the sandstone, then climbing ladders of pinion and juniper... past hand and toe holds cut, I think, some thousand years ago...

We climbed out... grateful that I live how I do... and didn't have to struggle anything close to what these folks did. For them, every dang day was a struggle to just stay alive... which they did for an estimated 35 years...

Imagine that? You're an Old Man... at 30 !!!

I think I'll Moderate my Minimalism... keep my wore out Ol' rig and Big Red Motorcycle thank you... and let those who want to live like the Ancients... follow their own ideas. ;)

Now... seeing as I think I'm all caught up... Tomorrow...

I can maybe tell you 'bout the attack of the Colorado Highland Dragons!

 Living Fat
Brian