I took a picture of this large tree behind Rosslyn Castle, Scotland; nothing like it in the rest of the valley. An hour later, I didn’t take a picture of the depiction of the Tree of Life inside Rosslyn Chapel. I mention my brief time at Rosslyn in Clairvaux Manifesto.

I thought of this beautiful tree as I was watching the movie Avatar. There’s so much I could say, but I’ll let the opening lines of Fiat Lux in the free book preview of Clairvaux Manifesto speak for themselves,

When movies like Star Trek and Angels & Demons open in theaters, audiences are reminded of all the multi-dimensional facets of space-time getting turned upside down and inside out (like Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz in The Fountain). Reading history rightly is important. Remembering rightly is most important. From Star Wars to The Matrix Revolutions, from The Bourne Ultimatum to X-Men Origins: Wolverine, or Terminator Salvation to Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, it’s becoming a trend to reinvent the past in order to extrapolate on the future. The question to be asking is how deep does this rabbit hole go?

I find it curious that avatar is a Hindu idea. I find it curious that Vishnu is blue. I find it curious that Krishna is taught to be an avatar of Vishnu.

Although it’s another continent (planet) and religion altogether, I think that Mel Gibson was addressing more than just Mayan and Incan ideas of Quetzalcoatl in Apocalypto.

In his introductory premise to The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith writes,

Among the savage nations of hunters and fishers, every individual who is able to work, is more or less employed in useful labor, and endeavors to provide, as well as he can, the necessaries and conveniences of life, for himself, or such of his family or tribe… Such nations, however, are so miserably poor…

Such rosy 18th Century glasses; but what if they’re blue!