gerardcarey
Veteran Member
- Time of past OR future Camino
- CFx2, CPx1
Due to length restraints, I’ve had to to split the story into two posts. I find it no longer ‘flows’.
I suggest reading Part 1 again, link just below, before reading Part 2.
Regards Gerard
Part 1 link
https://www.caminodesantiago.me/com...n-articulation-and-tauredunum-latterly.86006/
Part 2
Let's start with a photo.
Looking down on Lausanne. The VF winds around the spacious, well settled edge of the lake.
From bottom left, we head off around the lake's edge, left again into the Rhone valley, then right, up and over the alps....hopefully.
https://unsplash.com/photos/body-of-water-and-mountain-sJyeYf9V590
Meeting the students again, here on the path, I was concerned that my embarrassing intrusion into their breakfast crime spree had caused a rift in our relationship. Apparently not. All is well!
“Come walk with us Mr. Carey...Mr Gerald...Sir. We saw you ahead of us and we need your input on some important matters,” asks a lass from the midst of the posse.
Young faces look up expectantly. “I tentatively agree with your request,” I reply, “on the condition that this Mr. Carey, Mr Gerald, Sir, nonsense, has got to stop!
Where I come from, such an address to an undeserving person such as myself, is rightly regarded as a serious insult. In modern parlance, it’s at least being culturally insensitive! It should be obvious that I’m just an ordinary bloke, of no particular renown, and therefore absolutely insist on being addressed simply as Gerard.”
Agreement having being reached, we set off again around the foreshore which also accommodates a busy road, initially entitled the Route de Lausanne, then the Rue du Lac, now something else. We admire the swift little red trains that sweep in along the other side of the road, before disappearing into a mountain troll hole, away into the never-never once again.
“Mr Gerard?.…Why were you stopping every now and then to look up the lake?”
Before I can even attempt to answer another student interrupts.
"No!...We decided to ask him questions about university life!”
My turn to interrupt.
“OK. Settle down. Firstly, we’ve got to maintain a steady walking pace so we arrive at tonight’s destination at a reasonable hour.
So we have to be walking and talking, ok? We'll alternate between study questions and miscellaneous ones, and start with your already asked, miscellaneous one.
And that was…Why was I stopping and looking up the lake?
And the answer is... I was imagining the Tsunami.”
The interest this generated forced me to enlighten them as to what had happened. I gestured across the water, up the Rhone valley, pointed out the hole in the sky which I figured the mountain had once occupied.
“A great mountain peak, Mt Tauredunum, once occupied that space. It abruptly and violently collapsed. To the extent that it seems to have disappeared completely from the Alp’s.
This gargantuan, collapsing mass of rock and earth surged out into and across the Rhone valley.
The Rhone river’s delta consisted of a saturated, grainy, sandy base which had, over millennia, been built up by the river depositing the moraine content of its water. That enormous pressure-surge of mountain rock and earth liquefied this saturated sandy base layer, and then ejected it immediately in the direction of least resistance, out into lake Geneva.
Scientific research has established that the silt deposit on the lake bed is up to 5 kilometres wide, has an average depth of 5 metres, and extends 10 kilometres down the lake. It was this silt ejection that precipitated the Tsunami.
The mountain’s collapse, and it’s subsequent effects, is called the ‘Tauredunum Event’, after the mountain itself.”
“Next question?”
“How high was the Tsunami?”
“Wrong question! Study question now please.”
A quieter voice now. From the rear of the group.
“Mr Gerard, this is be our first year of university studies. It’s difficult trying to work out what courses to take, how to study, allocate time, how to discipline yourself. Your thoughts please.”
“Blimey,” I replied, recalling my less than successful university career, “This has got to be a ‘do as I say’ not a ‘do as I did’ kind of answer.
What I would like to to do is address this question from a somewhat different perspective.
I propose the first question should be...Why am I at University? Opinions please!”
The general consensus was, “To become educated in a particular field in order to assist in attaining suitable employment upon completion of university studies”.
Simple. Sensible. Plausible. Parent pleasing. About what you’d expect right?
“Wrong! wrong! and wrong!” I replied, “and seriously wrong, in that it is not the complete answer.
It is missing the most important ingredient.”
“But come on now you horrible lot,” I continued, “let’s keep walking til we reach that treed, grassy lakeside area up ahead. We can stop for a rest, have something to eat, maybe have a splash in the lake, then we’ll continue our chat. That’ll give me a chance to arrange my thoughts.”
On arrival at our rest stop I dropped my pack, removed my shirt, shoes and socks, then proceeded to wade out into the lake. I then realised why so few people were in swimming on such a fine warm day. Talk about cold!
Gerard you twat! How would you expect glacier melt water to feel?
Whatever, there was no way I could display cowardice in front of these students, so in my pride made me plunge. On emerging I reckon that I inhaled, in one enormous gasp, all the oxygen from the air from at least a surrounding one kilometre radius.
“Pleasantly bracing!” I gasped to my young friends as I emerged. I grabbed my little pilgrim towel and proceeded to vigorously rub myself down.
After a short rest, we set off again and I was encouraged to elucidate on my proposition.
My little group tightened up.
That’s a good sign. It meant that at the very least that they did not think I was boring.
And being boring I consider at least a Cardinal sin.
“Ok… To continue… I suggest that our word for the day, is Articulate.”
I’m wagging my finger at them now, to emphasise what I’m saying.
“Now it goes without saying that there is no one more powerful than someone who is Articulate. Perhaps it doesn’t go without saying, so I’ll say it again, slowly, carefully, for the sake of emphasis.
No one is more powerful than someone who is Articulate’.
I have heard it described as ‘Humanities' highest skill’. And I believe that. Absolutely.
So what does an articulate person look like?
They are not that hard to spot, because in being unusual, they are distinctive.
They are identified firstly by being someone who is truly knowledgeable in one or more particular subjects. In addition, and more importantly, on addressing an audience, they are able to gather their thoughts and ideas and expound on them intelligently, logically, coherently and interestingly.
Doing all those things at once certainly isn’t easy. But they do make it appear so!
You should take note when you come across one.
Now, for you lot, as university students, I’d suggest you observe the traits of someone you regard as a really good lecturer. You will find they are quite a rare being. They excel at making study interesting, thereby making learning a pleasure.
As you extend your search area out into open society, it’s important that you don’t get hung-up on the person. What you are looking for is the Articulation. For example. In the political sphere it is what sorts the intelligent speaker from the merely adequate. Well, the perhaps 'sometimes' adequate.
Now, harking back to you guys n gals, what I am of course suggesting is that becoming an articulate person is what you need for yourselves.
It is certainly what your parents want for you, and is what your society needs from you.
We need you to be the very best you can possibly be.
Someone said that acquiring this skill will give you authority, influence and respectability.
Sounds dead right to me!
For each and every one of you it will be the prelude to a successful and fulfilling life.”
“Now have a think and a chat about that for a while and then we'll have question time.
You need to determine the validity of my assertion. I’m pretty sure you won’t have come across many, if any, who make such an assertion. That alone makes it worthy of suspicion.
And after question time, we'll discuss the validity of my stance, after which we will proceed to the second part of the process. How is this skill of Articulation to be attained?”
"But in case you get brain strain from all this thinking, we'll put all that aside for a while.
What say we now have another miscellaneous question. What was that question we put aside?”
The Tsunami, how high was it?”
“Right! Ok!”
I’m getting excited just thinking about it.
I stop, turn, and point back down the lake.
“So, back there at Lausanne, where we started today, that’s about a third of the way down the lake. It is estimated that the Tsunami, on arriving there, was at least 13 metres high. That’s around four stories high.
Check it out on that building over there. I point to a multi-storied hotel a couple of blocks inland.
Let's stop here for a moment and just quietly imagine that."
We stopped, turned, and looked up the lake for a moment in silence.
"There you go cobbers. A wall of water that high, and six or more kilometres wide, coming down the lake towards them at an estimated speed of about 70ks an hour. That’s what the people who lived and worked along the lake edge would have seen.
Well, some of them would have seen it.
It’s very existence, the danger, speed and the enormity of its destructive power. These things would have been beyond their comprehension.
For most of them, it was good night sunshine.”
NOTES
Gregory of Tours
A bishop, in 563AD, noted that an unusual event had occurred in Geneva.
“A cascade of rocks plunged into the Rhone River, generating a wave of water that “overwhelmed with a sudden and violent flood all that was on the banks as far as the city of Geneva.
Gregory! Mate! Your report does appear to be a rather underwhelming description of a rather overwhelming event.
Marius of Avenches.
He described the Tauredunum Event as follows:
“The great mountain of Tauredunum, in the territory of the Valais, fell so suddenly that it covered a castle in its neighbourhoods, and villages with their inhabitants; it so agitated the lake for 60 miles in length and 20 in breadth that it overflowed both its banks; it destroyed very ancient villages, with men and cattle; it entombed several holy places, with the religious belonging to them. It swept away with fury the Bridge of Geneva, the mills and the men; and, flowing into the city of Geneva, caused loss of life.
Thank you Marius. That’s a bit better. No that’s a lot better Marius. Scientists reckon the wave took 70 minutes to reach the bottom of the lake, and that it was down from about 13 to about 8 metres when it boiled over the Geneva city walls and laid waste to the city.
Only 8?….....Blimey.
Regards
Gerard
Talking about Tsunamis.
www.sitnews.us
Wikipedia gives us a scientific viewpoint
en.wikipedia.org
I suggest reading Part 1 again, link just below, before reading Part 2.
Regards Gerard
Part 1 link
https://www.caminodesantiago.me/com...n-articulation-and-tauredunum-latterly.86006/
Part 2
Let's start with a photo.
Looking down on Lausanne. The VF winds around the spacious, well settled edge of the lake.
From bottom left, we head off around the lake's edge, left again into the Rhone valley, then right, up and over the alps....hopefully.
https://unsplash.com/photos/body-of-water-and-mountain-sJyeYf9V590
Meeting the students again, here on the path, I was concerned that my embarrassing intrusion into their breakfast crime spree had caused a rift in our relationship. Apparently not. All is well!
“Come walk with us Mr. Carey...Mr Gerald...Sir. We saw you ahead of us and we need your input on some important matters,” asks a lass from the midst of the posse.
Young faces look up expectantly. “I tentatively agree with your request,” I reply, “on the condition that this Mr. Carey, Mr Gerald, Sir, nonsense, has got to stop!
Where I come from, such an address to an undeserving person such as myself, is rightly regarded as a serious insult. In modern parlance, it’s at least being culturally insensitive! It should be obvious that I’m just an ordinary bloke, of no particular renown, and therefore absolutely insist on being addressed simply as Gerard.”
Agreement having being reached, we set off again around the foreshore which also accommodates a busy road, initially entitled the Route de Lausanne, then the Rue du Lac, now something else. We admire the swift little red trains that sweep in along the other side of the road, before disappearing into a mountain troll hole, away into the never-never once again.
“Mr Gerard?.…Why were you stopping every now and then to look up the lake?”
Before I can even attempt to answer another student interrupts.
"No!...We decided to ask him questions about university life!”
My turn to interrupt.
“OK. Settle down. Firstly, we’ve got to maintain a steady walking pace so we arrive at tonight’s destination at a reasonable hour.
So we have to be walking and talking, ok? We'll alternate between study questions and miscellaneous ones, and start with your already asked, miscellaneous one.
And that was…Why was I stopping and looking up the lake?
And the answer is... I was imagining the Tsunami.”
The interest this generated forced me to enlighten them as to what had happened. I gestured across the water, up the Rhone valley, pointed out the hole in the sky which I figured the mountain had once occupied.
“A great mountain peak, Mt Tauredunum, once occupied that space. It abruptly and violently collapsed. To the extent that it seems to have disappeared completely from the Alp’s.
This gargantuan, collapsing mass of rock and earth surged out into and across the Rhone valley.
The Rhone river’s delta consisted of a saturated, grainy, sandy base which had, over millennia, been built up by the river depositing the moraine content of its water. That enormous pressure-surge of mountain rock and earth liquefied this saturated sandy base layer, and then ejected it immediately in the direction of least resistance, out into lake Geneva.
Scientific research has established that the silt deposit on the lake bed is up to 5 kilometres wide, has an average depth of 5 metres, and extends 10 kilometres down the lake. It was this silt ejection that precipitated the Tsunami.
The mountain’s collapse, and it’s subsequent effects, is called the ‘Tauredunum Event’, after the mountain itself.”
“Next question?”
“How high was the Tsunami?”
“Wrong question! Study question now please.”
A quieter voice now. From the rear of the group.
“Mr Gerard, this is be our first year of university studies. It’s difficult trying to work out what courses to take, how to study, allocate time, how to discipline yourself. Your thoughts please.”
“Blimey,” I replied, recalling my less than successful university career, “This has got to be a ‘do as I say’ not a ‘do as I did’ kind of answer.
What I would like to to do is address this question from a somewhat different perspective.
I propose the first question should be...Why am I at University? Opinions please!”
The general consensus was, “To become educated in a particular field in order to assist in attaining suitable employment upon completion of university studies”.
Simple. Sensible. Plausible. Parent pleasing. About what you’d expect right?
“Wrong! wrong! and wrong!” I replied, “and seriously wrong, in that it is not the complete answer.
It is missing the most important ingredient.”
“But come on now you horrible lot,” I continued, “let’s keep walking til we reach that treed, grassy lakeside area up ahead. We can stop for a rest, have something to eat, maybe have a splash in the lake, then we’ll continue our chat. That’ll give me a chance to arrange my thoughts.”
On arrival at our rest stop I dropped my pack, removed my shirt, shoes and socks, then proceeded to wade out into the lake. I then realised why so few people were in swimming on such a fine warm day. Talk about cold!
Gerard you twat! How would you expect glacier melt water to feel?
Whatever, there was no way I could display cowardice in front of these students, so in my pride made me plunge. On emerging I reckon that I inhaled, in one enormous gasp, all the oxygen from the air from at least a surrounding one kilometre radius.
“Pleasantly bracing!” I gasped to my young friends as I emerged. I grabbed my little pilgrim towel and proceeded to vigorously rub myself down.
After a short rest, we set off again and I was encouraged to elucidate on my proposition.
My little group tightened up.
That’s a good sign. It meant that at the very least that they did not think I was boring.
And being boring I consider at least a Cardinal sin.
“Ok… To continue… I suggest that our word for the day, is Articulate.”
I’m wagging my finger at them now, to emphasise what I’m saying.
“Now it goes without saying that there is no one more powerful than someone who is Articulate. Perhaps it doesn’t go without saying, so I’ll say it again, slowly, carefully, for the sake of emphasis.
No one is more powerful than someone who is Articulate’.
I have heard it described as ‘Humanities' highest skill’. And I believe that. Absolutely.
So what does an articulate person look like?
They are not that hard to spot, because in being unusual, they are distinctive.
They are identified firstly by being someone who is truly knowledgeable in one or more particular subjects. In addition, and more importantly, on addressing an audience, they are able to gather their thoughts and ideas and expound on them intelligently, logically, coherently and interestingly.
Doing all those things at once certainly isn’t easy. But they do make it appear so!
You should take note when you come across one.
Now, for you lot, as university students, I’d suggest you observe the traits of someone you regard as a really good lecturer. You will find they are quite a rare being. They excel at making study interesting, thereby making learning a pleasure.
As you extend your search area out into open society, it’s important that you don’t get hung-up on the person. What you are looking for is the Articulation. For example. In the political sphere it is what sorts the intelligent speaker from the merely adequate. Well, the perhaps 'sometimes' adequate.
Now, harking back to you guys n gals, what I am of course suggesting is that becoming an articulate person is what you need for yourselves.
It is certainly what your parents want for you, and is what your society needs from you.
We need you to be the very best you can possibly be.
Someone said that acquiring this skill will give you authority, influence and respectability.
Sounds dead right to me!
For each and every one of you it will be the prelude to a successful and fulfilling life.”
“Now have a think and a chat about that for a while and then we'll have question time.
You need to determine the validity of my assertion. I’m pretty sure you won’t have come across many, if any, who make such an assertion. That alone makes it worthy of suspicion.
And after question time, we'll discuss the validity of my stance, after which we will proceed to the second part of the process. How is this skill of Articulation to be attained?”
"But in case you get brain strain from all this thinking, we'll put all that aside for a while.
What say we now have another miscellaneous question. What was that question we put aside?”
The Tsunami, how high was it?”
“Right! Ok!”
I’m getting excited just thinking about it.
I stop, turn, and point back down the lake.
“So, back there at Lausanne, where we started today, that’s about a third of the way down the lake. It is estimated that the Tsunami, on arriving there, was at least 13 metres high. That’s around four stories high.
Check it out on that building over there. I point to a multi-storied hotel a couple of blocks inland.
Let's stop here for a moment and just quietly imagine that."
We stopped, turned, and looked up the lake for a moment in silence.
"There you go cobbers. A wall of water that high, and six or more kilometres wide, coming down the lake towards them at an estimated speed of about 70ks an hour. That’s what the people who lived and worked along the lake edge would have seen.
Well, some of them would have seen it.
It’s very existence, the danger, speed and the enormity of its destructive power. These things would have been beyond their comprehension.
For most of them, it was good night sunshine.”
NOTES
Gregory of Tours
A bishop, in 563AD, noted that an unusual event had occurred in Geneva.
“A cascade of rocks plunged into the Rhone River, generating a wave of water that “overwhelmed with a sudden and violent flood all that was on the banks as far as the city of Geneva.
Gregory! Mate! Your report does appear to be a rather underwhelming description of a rather overwhelming event.
Marius of Avenches.
He described the Tauredunum Event as follows:
“The great mountain of Tauredunum, in the territory of the Valais, fell so suddenly that it covered a castle in its neighbourhoods, and villages with their inhabitants; it so agitated the lake for 60 miles in length and 20 in breadth that it overflowed both its banks; it destroyed very ancient villages, with men and cattle; it entombed several holy places, with the religious belonging to them. It swept away with fury the Bridge of Geneva, the mills and the men; and, flowing into the city of Geneva, caused loss of life.
Thank you Marius. That’s a bit better. No that’s a lot better Marius. Scientists reckon the wave took 70 minutes to reach the bottom of the lake, and that it was down from about 13 to about 8 metres when it boiled over the Geneva city walls and laid waste to the city.
Only 8?….....Blimey.
Regards
Gerard
Talking about Tsunamis.
SitNews - SURVIVING THE BIGGEST WAVE EVER By DAVE KIFFER
Historical Ketchikan and Southeast Alaska
Wikipedia gives us a scientific viewpoint
1958 Lituya Bay earthquake and megatsunami - Wikipedia
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