Chapter 4: The Alpha Lithos Theory by the Modern-Day Mountain Man

Heart of Gold

Alpha Lithos Theory Chapter 4: The Gold Standard

           Of the four chapters thus far, this will certainly be the most philosophical and will require you, the reader, to make some pretty fantastical mental leaps. There will be a great deal of redundancy trying to hammer home a point that may be tenuous at best. I also cannot promise that I will stay on course without interruption. With that being said, let’s get started.

One of my favorite movies of all time is Raiders of the Lost Ark. It is the first adventure movie that I can remember watching with my cousins, and to this day it is still in my top five favorite movies of all time. So much in fact, that our family dog is named after the hero. That is a reversal of fortunes, as in the third movie in the series we find out that Indiana is named after the family dog. To me, this movie is timeless, which I define as a movie that will always be valid and important. It works to show us the non-stop struggle of good versus evil. I can watch this movie over and over again and never get tired of it, as I always find some new detail I hadn’t noticed in the multitude of times I had watched it before. One of the important aspects of this movie is that it gets the viewer to buy into the importance of finding and keeping the Ark of the Covenant in the hands of people who represent the virtuous and good. It is one of the greatest MacGuffins (a device or item used to drive the plot) in film history. The only other MacGuffin that may rival it in cinema history is the Holy Grail from the third movie in the series. Why was finding the Ark of the Covenant so important? If it fell into Nazi hands, they would wield its unstoppable and immeasurable power to take over the world. I don’t have to tell you how evil the Nazis were, history speaks for itself in that regard. As it is stated in the movie “it is a radio for talking directly to God,” which allows the person or group that controls it to be able to wield its unspeakable power on their enemies. This movie plays so well because the very item they are seeking is the veritable gold standard of historical relics. The Ark itself being, and holding, the very items that give humanity hope, meaning, and purpose. Also, according to the Bible, it was made of gold.  The Bible speaks of the Ark’s ability to lay waste to entire armies and cities, and it resulted in immediate death for anyone unauthorized to touch it. One of the charms of the Indiana Jones series is that they could take real historical items, add some Hollywood movie magic, ask the viewer to suspend their disbelief for a few hours, and teach us about the nonstop battle mankind faces, both the physical and the spiritual. All of the movies contain non-stop action, but the all-important takeaway (or the moral) is about the internal struggle mankind has to go through on a continual basis throughout our lives that toe the line between good and evil. This movie is the gold standard of what a blockbuster movie should be. Why did I include a diatribe about one of my favorite movies? Because, like Indiana Jones, I am on a quest for history, and possibly some fortune and glory. One of the pieces of physical evidence I will use in this chapter is, in fact, the Ark of the Covenant.

Indi - Anna Jones the Dog

           I am going to once again make an attempt to not only show that mankind has not changed from an intellectual or ability standpoint since the very first day of existence, and also to show that our view and understanding of history is not always correct. The history that we are taught in school is often flawed and is based on the current sentiment, an agenda, or is controlled by the academic world that oftentimes cannot see past the end of their own noses. A great example of what I am trying to say is that when I was in primary school I remember reading in textbooks and encyclopedias that people in Columbus’s time thought that the world was flat and that if they sailed too far in any one direction they would sail off the end of the world. This is certainly a quaint idea that tries to make these explorers seem even more bold by sailing off into the great unknown. I have no doubts that a few people in that time period thought the world was flat. In fact, even today in our “advanced and modern” world there are still people who believe the world is flat. However, if we dig a little deeper and truly look for the connections from one historical timeline to another, we will very quickly see that mankind has always known that the earth was spherical, and the ancients even knew its exact size with almost modern-day precision. We only need to look at the ancient monuments that are still standing today to be able to see what knowledge the ancient scholars possessed.  These monuments were built with the sole purpose of examining and predicting the Earth’s relationship to other celestial bodies. Some examples would include the Great Pyramid of Giza, Stonehenge (and Woodhenge), or any of the temples in Central and South America. Even through the legends (oral and written) of past people we can see that they were world travelers and world-class navigators. This biased way of teaching things would be an exemplar of C.S. Lewis’s “Chronological Snobbery.” We want so badly to have a direct connection with everything historic, that we have to change the timelines to fit our narrative to make us look like the “real” experts. This is also done to elevate and make our current position in history more important. It is as if we are willing to eschew facts for what we would rather it be. I believe the kids of today call this FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). This brings me back to the Ark of Covenant and the gold standard it sets for interpreting history correctly.

           Let's start with what I believe the Ark of the Covenant to be in the first place. I am all but certain it was a Leyden (named after the University in Leiden, Netherlands) Jar. What is a Leyden Jar? For those of you who do not know, a Leyden Jar is an electrical capacitor. The difference between a capacitor and a battery is that a capacitor can hold an amount (including very high amounts) of electricity for a period of time and then release the full charge all at one time. You probably know of one of these being used through the story of Ben Franklin flying his kite in a lightning (electrical) storm. Often time we see the kite with the key, but the Leyden Jar is left out of the picture (I have included a picture of one as a reference). The Leyden Jar was the most important piece of equipment he was using that day. It was also a relatively new invention (discovery) according to the modern telling of history. Mr. Franklin was conducting an experiment to literally capture lighting in a bottle to demonstrate that lightning was electrical. He did not discover electricity or invent the Leyden Jar.

Ben Franklin Holding a Leyden Jar

Why am I convinced that the Ark of the Covenant was a Leyden jar? Let’s examine some of the evidence in the description and events the Bible gives us. I will also prognosticate a few other ideas outside of the Bible that at least make sense in my own mind, and I believe there is strong evidence that backs it up. While I am laying out my case for this, I would like you as the reader to know that I have conducted countless experiments with Leyden Jars, so I have a great deal of knowledge about them. This experience and knowledge led all of the way up to building a working scale model of the Ark of the Covenant with my daughter for a science exposition. Yes, dear reader, you read that correctly, a working model. We were able to demonstrate that the specifications for the design of the Ark given in the Bible worked to interact with and control electrical charges. We of course didn’t use gold, as we were sorely lacking in that department. Gold would have just made it work even better due to gold’s high electrical conductivity ability. The design worked even with an inferior metal over the wooden inner core. We used thin sheet metal, spray-painted gold (picture included below). Even though it wasn’t perfect, it was the design that made it work. For the demonstration we used either a Wimshurst Machine or a Van de Graaf Generator to charge it (put electricity into it). It was a lot of fun watching people get a little shock from these devices at the Exposition. No lasting or permanent harm came from our little models, just enough to let you know that it happened. Very similar to touching a light switch and receiving a static shock. OK, maybe a little more intense of a shock, but it was all done in the name of “science.” Do keep in mind however that Leyden Jars do have the ability to kill if the charge put into them is big enough.

Working Scale Model of the Ark of the Covenant (The wiring attached was not necessary, but made it much easier to charge it with wiring leads)

We don’t give credit for the Leyden Jar being discovered until the mid-eighteenth century, but alas, here is one existing over three thousand years before. How can this be? If academics were not often (always?) looking out for their own interests and agendas they would need to go back and rewrite the historical records we now preach as gospel. This might make their specific area of knowledge less important and make moot their station in life. This is the reason why this re-writing so rarely happens. I can hear the skeptics of my argument saying right now, “This is great, but you have no proof; we have never found the Ark, so we will never know.” That is where you are missing the bigger picture. Whether or not we actually have the Ark, the description in the Bible says exactly what it is and what it could do, and it lays out exact instructions for how to build one. Case in point, we wouldn’t necessarily need to see a bridge or a building in a physical form if we had a blueprint. We could build a working model to show that the blueprint is viable. The description in the Bible is that blueprint. Whether or not we ever find THE Ark of the Covenant or not, it doesn’t change the principles behind how Leyden Jars work or what happens if you touch one that has a deadly amount of electricity stored inside it.

Ok, I have to go off on a bit of a tangent for a paragraph or two until I come back to lay out some more of my evidence for the Ark of the Covenant being a Leyden Jar. I can see how in the first stages of the Alpha Lithos Theory it could easily be interpreted that I am attacking or possibly even trying to debunk organized religion (especially Christianity), but please understand that is not my intention in any way, shape, or form. As I said in Chapter One, I am not exactly sure where I currently sit (or stand) on some religious concepts, especially in regard to Christianity, but if anything, I am trying to make a case to show that Biblical scholars and theologians from the not-too-distant past were correct all along and that great eons of time were not needed for Homo Sapiens to arrive on the scene. That is the goal of this entire writing project, to poke small holes in the historical narrative and to show that maybe we don’t know as much as we think we do.  Although, in the interest of full disclosure, I really just like to argue and sometimes say and do things just to get a rise out of people. Deep down inside, I know this is wrong, but I am having too much fun to quit now.

My mom likes to tell a story about me when I was a wee lad (around two years of age) when she dropped me off at Sunday School and returned to pick me up later to find me sitting outside on the steps of the church saying that I was done. I can’t definitively say this, but I would like to believe that from day one I was a skeptic, and when someone said something that went against my inherent logic it was more than I could tolerate. That is certainly the case today. Maybe, just maybe, they told me a story in that Sunday School class, and I said nope, never happened that way and I simply left. Who knows? What I do know is that I have heard many such stories since that day that sound great in a Sunday School class to a group of unwitting children but simply don’t stand up to any sort of academic scrutiny, rigor, or examination.

One of the other reasons that I have started this writing project is that I can see the proverbial writing on the wall. With computing technology (especially AI) becoming more prevalent and proficient, it is only a matter of time before an entire generation of young Christians is turned permanently away from the extraordinary information in the Bible. I firmly believe we have to start reading and teaching the Bible from a different perspective to today’s people (especially children). Artificial Intelligence does not write information (yet?), but it does refine a human’s ability to find and access information at a record and breakneck pace. If we don’t teach factual information that can be verified, the computer will. Eventually, people will only look to computers for answers, and books like the Bible might be relegated to seldom-visited bookshelves. Look around with open (objective) eyes, it is already happening. It could also be argued that AI will eventually replace the human requirements for most tasks.  How do we accomplish this task of staying one step ahead of simply relying on a Google search or AI? I believe we need to explore and examine evidence on our own away from whatever the narrative of the day is so that we don’t just take a search engine search as the standard for saying we know or understand something. This was certainly done in the past in the Christian Church. Theologians of old read the Bible through a lens that allowed them to see some parts of the Bible as historical (literal), allegorical, moral, or even spiritual. I believe it is a rather new state of affairs that people read the Bible with only the literal (historical) lens. It works great to read the entirety of the Bible literally if you can isolate the source (Bible) and not look too closely, but that is not at all scholarly. Doing it this way has undoubtedly turned countless scores of people away from God’s word (in some respects, this would include me). This is what brings me to this chapter, we need to think about or even be able to rationalize something as extraordinary as the Ark of the Covenant through all four lenses. This should be the gold standard for how we read and understand these ancient tales. And just to mention it again, I always have the goal of poking yet another hole in the historical narrative that makes up our now majority-atheist society.

Young Indy Whipping up the Truth

Now, back to the Ark of the Covenant. Imagine if you will the men and women that lived over three thousand years ago. They understood extreme violence well. Theirs was a culture of violence and hand-to-hand warfare. Dealing death through swords, spears, stones, bows, chariots, and the other implements of war using mankind’s sorted love affair with killing, conquest, and violence was something that was well understood and implemented often. Not too different really than in our modern-day world. In our current time period, every law and policy is backed up through the barrel of a firearm if you look closely enough. Our civilization still thrives on violence (or even the threat of it), just like our ancestors did. All of these methods of mayhem in the ancient world had one thing in common, you could see them. Imagine a weapon that could strike a man dead with no physical outward appearance or effect. The veritable hand of God if you will. That must have been a truly devastating psychological advantage over an enemy. Word must have spread far and wide about the Israelites’ power (from God) over their enemies. We have a few modern analogs to this phenomenon, such as when the whisper of the first stealth jets first came to light or even when Lewis and Clark took along a Girardoni air rifle with them on their journey west. The natives thought the air rifle was some kind of magic. They couldn’t hear the bullet being fired like in a muzzleloader of the day, yet somehow the target at some distance would fall over every time. If you wanted to dig a little deeper into how something like this (psychological manipulation) works, we could examine the Middle Ages practice that the church conducted on their own parishioners. Once a year communion was absolutely required, but what they failed to mention is that this communion wine was heavily laced with a very powerful hallucinogenic drug that made the people see the most fantastical things and even have face-to-face experiences with God. That certainly kept the people coming back. When you, or someone you knew experienced a direct connection with God, you would fear anything less. Fear is an amazing, powerful weapon when wielded properly (cough, COVID, cough).

I do not believe that the Ark of the Covenant could actually melt a Nazi’s face off or render souls directly to heaven in a tidal wave of ghostly apparitions as we saw in the movie. However, on a side note, it would be great if all Nazis did have their faces melted off (I hate those guys). If you have seen the movie, you know what I am talking about. Alas, it is important to remember why both the good and the bad guys wanted to get their hands on the Ark so badly; it was a weapon of the highest order and could be a symbol of conquest for their respective sides (a true psychological advantage). The reason the Nazis were after it on the silver screen is the same reason why the Philistines in the Biblical age wanted it. Sometimes Hollywood gets it right.

           Gold is a very interesting metal. It is of course elemental, which means it is one of the basic building pieces of our known universe. Basic meaning base (at the ground level), not simple by any stretch of the imagination. Throughout mankind’s history gold has always been held as a direct comparison to gods or divinity, or even as a god in its own right. Also interesting to note, not only was the Ark of the Covenant made of gold, its dimensions were of the Golden Ratio (or Divine Proportion if you like). Mankind has always had an attraction to golden things and ideas.

Let’s take a closer look at some peculiar details of the Ark’s description that lend more evidence to it being a Leyden Jar. Gold was and is still the standard for anything important. Run fast enough? Get a Gold Medal. Catch a ball well enough? Get a gold glove. Sing well enough? Get a gold record. Gold is what you build things of great importance out of. It is not a coincidence that weddings are often completed with the giving of golden bands, an unending symbol of perfect love and perfection in a metal that will last for all eternity. If you were going to build the most important thing in the world, to hold the most important items in the world, there would be no better material to use than gold. Cultures from all over the world have been doing this for eons. Here is my point, if this is the very symbol of God’s power and authority for His people on earth, why would it not be cast of solid gold? Obviously they had some advanced knowledge of metallurgy and could have easily cast it from solid gold. This would have made it pure to its core. In fact, I would argue that would have made it much easier to make if it had been cast of solid gold. However, it is given very clear building instructions to have a layer of wood in between the inner and outer layers of gold. Why? Because this is the only way a Leyden Jar will work. Why did the bearers also have to carry it with wooden poles? Wood, my friend, is an insulator and would maintain the charge while the Ark was being moved to the battlefield. If someone were to touch the gold of the Ark with an insulator, they would complete the ground (circuit), and it was lights out (death or dismemberment). Another curiosity that I notice in the Biblical tale is that every time the Ark was used (usually to cause some death and destruction) it then had to be hidden or stored away. Why? Because once Leyden Jars are discharged, they are inert. There is no middle ground, once the electrical charge is released (all at once), it would become nothing more than a fancy foot locker. I am sure this secret had to be closely protected. Kill someone, let word spread about this powerful silent weapon possessed by the people of Yahweh, but then guard it closely or someone may touch it after it has been discharged and find out that there is more than meets the eye (I also loved the Transformers when I was a child. Who am I kidding? I still love the Transformers). This would certainly explain how the high priests were able to open it, under the cover of a tent of course, because it had either been discharged, or they knew how to discharge it. After all, you can’t let people see your stealth technology up close (Area 51 anybody?). The high priests were ancient electricians. They must have had a version of OSHA (or OSHIT as we used to call them at a former job, as in, OSHIT here they come) even back then, as we read the priests had to wear PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) when interacting with the Ark. Their gold breastplates could have protected them if they accidentally brushed up against the Ark while it was fully charged. I used a very similar concept when I used to play with Leyden Jars with my students, although my protective tool was made of copper, not gold. This gave me a way to discharge the jars (this also worked on the model of the Ark that we built) without receiving a shock myself. It’s no wonder everyone wanted to steal this thing.  The same thing happens today with our secret national security toys.

Outrunning the Bad Guys

I imagine the Philistines stole the Ark, all excited to get their hands on it, and then they became very disappointed when they couldn’t figure out how to use it. Just like today, I am sure their weapon engineers made promises they couldn’t deliver on. It took them about three weeks to give up and say this thing is worthless (except for the gold of course) and return it. What a psychological boost this was for the Israelites. Spin the tale and say they returned it because it was too dangerous and was killing everybody, but like the so-called body counts of today, the number of dead was highly inflated to make the Israelites’ side look better and more powerful. I am sure the word of this spread through the ancient kingdom and other nations said we aren’t messing with the Israelites, they have too much power (really it was advanced warfare technology). This is one of the reasons I am not too sure the original Ark is still in Ark form. Of course the gold is still around, and for those of you who are married, it could theoretically be on your finger. I believe that as the Ark was stolen and then stolen again by different groups, none of them knew the secret to get the power of God (Electricity/Lightning) to come out of it, so it was melted down for the precious metal content. I have heard stories that the Ark may be in a small church in Africa, but I am very skeptical. An ark, sure, but THE Ark, probably not. What is to say that there was only one of the weapons anyway? The interesting part of this story to me is that something existed three thousand years before it was supposed to.

This of course begs a few important questions. First and foremost, where did the people of that age obtain the knowledge to build a device like that a full three thousand years before historians and academics say it was invented/discovered? The mythical believer in me wants to say, ancient aliens of course. I still haven’t made an informed decision in that area yet, so that idea will have to stay in the fantastical realm for now. The point I am trying to make with these rhetorical questions remains one of the main tenets of my overall writing project (theory). That being that mankind has been almost supernaturally intelligent since day one of creation. We (mankind) have built some awesome stuff!

Sometimes the things we discover and invent defy explanation at a given moment in time. If I can build anything today, they could do the same in ages past, at least from an intellectual and ability perspective. I am sorry, try as I might, I cannot say that it was not possible for things like this to have existed in the ancient world. I cannot accept that ancient people weren’t as (or even more) intelligent than we are today. Even I am not that arrogant. With fairly simple materials it is not hard to build a Leyden Jar today. One that can even hold a strong enough charge to kill someone. Once you get the basic concept down, a child can build it (they can look up the factual instructions on the interwebs, to prove an earlier point). Again, how do I know this? I have a child who built one. Yes, yes, I get it, you would argue that she could only do this because someone taught her how to build it, but that is exactly what I am trying to convey. Someone taught me, and that someone was taught by someone else, who was taught by someone else, etc. We can’t and shouldn’t say we know exactly when this process started.

The second question that needs to be answered is how was it charged, if it was in-fact a Leyden Jar? It is incredible, as I come up with this nonsense in my head how often I keep coming back to the ancient Egyptians. Remember that in the story of the Ark's origin they had just left Egypt on the way to the “Holy Land” (watch your step so you don’t twist an ankle). What if it was stolen from the Egyptians? Is it possible that the Great Pyramid of Giza was an ancient power plant to charge devices like the Ark of the Covenant? We do know that the Great Pyramid of Giza had a gold pinnacle and that there is evidence of ancient wiring of sorts throughout the structure. Not to mention the piezoelectric effect of the granite in the core. There is also some speculation that something akin to Lord Kelvin’s Thunderstorm could have taken place throughout the different levels on the pyramid. On a side note, we were able to put a small charge into our science exposition model of the Ark using a Lord Kelvin’s Thunderstorm mechanism, but it was not powerful enough to get a strong charge. We needed a bigger scale model. The pyramid could have also harnessed natural occurring lightning or even tapped into the atmospheric electrical currents similar to what Nikola Tesla was able to do in New York. This is of course all speculation, bordering on psychotic obsession, but it all works, if only in principle. How did the high priests recharge it if they didn’t return to the Great Pyramid each time? I am afraid I do not have an answer to this yet. This is why I find writing nonsense like this so enticing and intriguing, and I won’t stop trying to figure this part of it out.

Now for the philosophical outlook on the value placed (both intrinsic and monetary) on gold throughout mankind’s history.

In full disclosure, one of the things I have never been very good with is money. I like money or more specifically, I like the things I can buy with money or even more defined by the opportunities money can afford (sorry, I had to get one pun in). I believe it would be impossible (or maybe improbable) to be able to live and exist in today's world without money, or at least some access to money. I do wish I would have been better with money throughout my life. Especially now that I am getting older and finding myself not really wanting to work a full-time job for what remains of my life. I have changed jobs many times, and moved my family often, sometimes completely across this great nation. Moving anywhere always proves to be a very expensive event, and moving across the country costs a multitude more. This was especially true for someone who has rarely made much money anyway. If I were to look at it from an intrapersonal perspective, I would realize that I did a lot of self-destructive and self-sabotaging behavior in regard to managing and utilizing my monetary assets.

These days I rarely make more than what is now minimum wage. Even after years of experience, education, and training, I think I can truly say that most jobs that I have done, I have not done for money. It is at this point in my life that I am certain that maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. In fact, when I read what I just wrote, I must come to the conclusion that maybe I am not so intelligent after all. Why did I do it? And why do I continue to do it? Well, by my own admission, I am a strange guy.  An idealist at heart. I always wanted to do a job because I loved doing it. I had always believed that showing up every day and giving my best to see a job well done with craftsmanship, love, and dedication was reward enough. Also, I wanted to see the value of the job as to what I could give to someone else or the effect that I could have on other people, by giving them the best education I could offer. Again, now that I read this, I am such an idiot.

Does anyone out there have access to a DeLorean with a Flux Capacitor that can go 88 miles an hour? Although that’s not actually necessary, is it? In the first Back to the Future movie when Doc Brown is using the remote control to send his dog Einstein traveling through time we see him doing a brake stand with the car, with just the tires spinning at the supposed speed; the car is not really traveling at a fast speed, it’s just the wheels spinning (you can see the MPH on the remote control). They could have just used rollers, ice, or KY Jelly to spin the tires, it would never have to move. Completely makes the train in the third movie pointless. Doc could have just used a series of pulleys and gear reduction to spin the wheels on a stationary car. That is if you believe the first movie. I bet you never thought about that, have you? Now you can truly see why I can’t stay on task. So many questions to answer in this universe.

OK, back to what I was saying. I would have it no other way, even if I had a time machine, although, I suppose it is a real shame that I can’t put a monetary value on all the experiences that I have had, otherwise I would be a rich man. Maybe I am a rich man, just in a different way.  I wonder if I can get my creditors to buy any of this BS.

This is not to say that I regret any of the decisions that I have made, just that when it comes to financial acumen, I am often found sorely lacking. Why am I sharing this as part of this blog on the gold standard? I am trying to show that by connection, a lot of things people do are not driven by the monetary value of something, and I don’t believe that this has ever changed in mankind’s history. In other words, all that glitters may not be gold. Also, in another full disclosure, I do not currently own any gold. What little I may have had in the past, was sold long ago to pay expenses. This isn’t to say that I don’t find gold fascinating and beautiful. I would love to have a huge pile of it, but I would find more value in the way it looks than what someone would pay for it. I find all of the elements fascinating, but gold does hold a special place in my reverence for the natural world. I think mankind has always beheld (although I’m not usually the one that be-holding it) its beauty and realized there is something very special about it.

Gold has been used to not only emulate gods but even used as a god. We are also told by academics that ancient civilizations used gold because of its radiance and its appearance as though it were the sun (or at least shining like the sun). An entire legend was even told about searching for the fleece of a winged ram made of gold. Sounds itchy.

I don’t think that we will search for it today because it looks or shines like the sun. We have very bright halogen and xenon bulbs that can do this much better. In fact, if you were to look at one of these modern high-intensity lights, it would be similar to staring at the sun, and you would go blind very quickly. I think this informs us that there’s something more to gold than just its appearance.

In our country’s past, it was the standard or foundation on which our paper money was based. Although we didn’t just use gold for this purpose, gold did stand the longest in this role. We’ve also used things like silver, tobacco, or my personal favorite way back in the late 18th century and early 19th century when we used the beaver standard. There is no way the ancient people could have known the things we would use gold for today, but it didn’t stop them from picking it up at every chance, and some of this undoubtedly ended up in our gold reserve in Kentucky. The gold was a symbol, a value holder that stood most times unseen, but people knew it was there and they had faith that it gave value to their paper.

It is very interesting to think that the same piece of gold someone could have held tens of thousands of years ago might now be used in the aerospace industry and be launched into outer space. Mankind has also used gold for personal adornment and jewelry. This has not changed today. You see, dear reader, that gold has always been seen as a connection to the divine or the infinite. This was especially true during Biblical timelines. So, what is it about gold that is so special then? Well, what is it?

For starters, gold doesn’t decay, degrade, or tarnish. Pure gold (24 carats by today’s standard) is just that, pure gold, no impurities can be found.

Given these characteristics alone, one could easily see how a connection to the divine or the infinite could be made by ancient people. The very symbol of gold could be used to provide hope for people, to allow them to see it as a representation of something greater than themselves. We still do this today. As previously mentioned in this chapter, if you do something exceptionally great, you are often rewarded with something gold. To take this point even further, when we look back at history, and highlight a time period that we define as the best, we call those the golden years. It is truly a symbol of perfection. My wife and I even had this discussion when we were preparing for our wedding about giving a token of something in gold. We both decided that that sentiment wasn’t necessary in our lives, that we wanted to get something that was more practical to our active and outdoor lifestyles, but we both recognized that the proper and historical thing to give to mark a very momentous occasion or one of life’s key milestones was gold. We accomplished this through her engagement ring and a matching wedding band just for her. In a concerted effort not to be “elementists” we opted instead for titanium bands for our matching rings. Titanium, which is also eternal, will ensure our wedding bands will certainly outlive us and everything we know, or possibly even our own solar system or galaxy. Yes, my friends, no matter which one of the elements we examine, we live in a truly miraculous universe.

If I was asked to outline the things that are truly gold in my life, or the things that I would represent as the gold standard in my life, these would be the relationships that I’ve had, not any piece of actual gold.  It would be my Grandpa, for me that’s the golden standard for what it means to be a man, my uncle, as the golden standard of knowledge (he thinks he knows everything and I believe he may be right), my mother, as the gold standard for what it means to be a parent, my wife as the gold standard for love and devotion, and my friend Paul as the gold standard for what brotherhood should be.

Brothers on Bikes

I fully realize that it must be very difficult to be my friend, parent, or wife. I am oftentimes incredibly selfish and very self-serving, and I’m not always very good at thinking of others. This is why I would define my relationship with Paul as being the golden standard of brotherhood. If we consider all of the shortfalls I have as a friend and a man, Paul is still willing to exist with me in a brotherhood.  Our friendship has never degraded or tarnished. It is not that I am trying to discount this same level of love and devotion with the family members that I mentioned, but they are blood and have no choice but to put up with me. As for my wife, there are some things in this universe that defy explanation, and I am not sure how she has tolerated me for over twenty years.

So dear reader, where does that leave us in regard to the point that I’m trying to make in this philosophical part of this chapter? Mankind has always valued different items for different reasons throughout history, of that there can be no doubt. However, more important than any physical item, even one as important through history as gold, is the brotherhood that mankind has always shared. This has driven us to think big thoughts, build great things, explore, and be a better version of ourselves because we know that someone has our back when it is needed most. No theory of evolution could ever overcome this. Sure, it could be argued that mankind is just an advanced pack animal, but that would be discounting what true brotherhood is. It is THE gold standard for excellence, compassion, comradery, and esprit de corps. These things are not influenced in any way by natural processes or selection, they exist in spite of it. Brotherhood is no more random than the protons, neutrons, and electrons that make up the element gold. Designed, embodied, and perfected from the beginning.

In conclusion, I hope that I have been able to show in some capacity that mankind’s fascination with the unique things of this universe and their possible connection to the divine has never changed. The technology that we thought was impossible for a given timeline or period to have was absolutely possible. This is because humans were created to see things for the exceptional qualities that they possess, and this in turn inspires us to be exceptional and create exceptional things. It is true that at times, this has led us (mankind) down some dark and dangerous roads. Just look at what the quest for gold did to the peoples of Central and South America, as the Conquistadors simply could not get enough of the shiny stuff. For all intents and purposes, the quest for gold, or even trying to achieve the gold standard is a morality play. Every day we have to approach the challenges before us, walking that fine line between good and evil. This has never changed in mankind’s history. Some days we are the best friend, and some days we need the best friend. I do not believe that the first humans who walked this earth viewed it any differently than I view it right now. They needed companionship as much as they needed physical items. They needed one another to be untarnished with an immortal and everlasting shine of love on them. Looking at what the priorities of ancient mankind were, helps us to know why they saw something special in gold (or the golden ideal) other than the fact that it’s just pretty. They couldn’t eat it, it was not useful for making tools or weapons, and it was heavy. But, I genuinely believe that something in their intelligent minds told them that there was something very special and unique about this elemental thing put on earth by our creator. The gold standard can never change, that is what makes it golden.

Chapter 5: Popeye the Sailor Man, AKA I’m on a Boat – Coming in late February. Stay Tuned.