PatrickMead.net

As previously described, the terrain around southern Arizona and New Mexico is so complex that whole cities could be hidden there. Frequent earthquakes and sudden downpours rearrange markers and make even the best hikers lose their bearings. Metal in the rocks make compasses useless and GPS systems often fail inexplicably. Still, people persist in going [...]

One of the fascinating, recurring themes in accounts of the Indian Wars in the American Southwest is how the Apache could appear seemingly out of nowhere, strike, and then disappear again. Pursuers constantly lost their trail or their tracks seemed to end at a wall of rock. A couple of Lone Ranger stories (and, later, [...]

I would post another Columbus article but, truth is, I don’t have that much more on him. I have a few bits and pieces and I think I should save those to weave into other posts. I also have a dozen or so posts I am working on that will be posted this winter. They [...]

For part three — and I think, the last — in this series we have to leap into the world of conjecture. We have to do this because, frankly, that’s all we have. Most people did not write a great deal about the “why” behind far flung travel into dangerous blank places on the map. [...]

Since several have asked, here is more on Christopher Columbus.
As he traveled about the Caribbean, he relied on the information he had received from other explorers. Not only did he gain maps from his relatives (mentioned in the last blog), he had maps from Alonso Sanchez de Huelva. A monk named Nectario found a letter [...]

Here’s a timely bit of Hidden History. Most of what we know about Christopher Columbus comes from biographers that were really hagiographers who lived hundreds of years after the intrepid explorer missed India by two thirds of the world and landed in the Caribbean. When we try to dig deeper into the historical record, some [...]

I’ll update the Hidden History/People series either Sunday evening or Monday morning. This has been an exceptionally busy time for me and that has made me a little slow. Sorry!
Kami is back in Texas. Her father had shoulder surgery and has a useless arm for a couple weeks at least. Her mother fainted and injured [...]

A movie coming out soon portrays the year 2012 as the year everything falls apart. Every possible natural disaster will be suddenly unleashed and, yes, the world will end. The movie looks like it might be entertaining, but let’s not join in the panic, folks. The scuttlebutt is that the Mayan calendar — a super [...]

As promised, here are some photos of the Great Communion at Rochester, Michigan. Thanks to Jenny Hoggatt for taking a ton of great ones. I wish I could publish them all, but Theobloggers might not like that!

The hosts: Patrick Mead (Rochester Church of Christ), Bob Cornwall (Central Woodward Christian Church – Disciples), Steve Martin (Meadowbrook [...]

A break from the Hidden People/Hidden History series…
It is Sunday night and I am tired. I finished our 10 week series on “Identity” this morning. The series was to introduce to our members the beginnings of the Stone-Campbell movement using the Declaration and Address as a guide (this is the 200th anniversary of the D&A). [...]