Origins

March 3

I am thankful for origins. This includes the origins of names or people. We should all try to understand where we came from in order to see where we are going. 

This photo is of the Red Stick sculpture on the riverfront in Baton Rouge. The history of the red stick dates back to 1600s when the French explorer d'Iberville sailed up the Mississippi River to the current site of Baton Rouge and saw a cypress pole reddened by the blood of sacrificial animals on it. The pole marked the hunting ground boundaries between the Bayou Goula and the Houma native Americans. d'Iberville called it le baton rouge (the red stick), and thus the origin of the name of our city. The sculpture was erected not too many years ago to remind Baton Rougians of their origins. There is another red stick sculpture on the Southern Univesity campus at the Mississippi River on Scott's bluff, which is on the north side of Baton Rouge.

origins

mr. darwin in 1859 published

on the origin of the species

many believe that treatise to be true

while others think it is feces

whether natural selection

or the theory of evolution

the work of darwin

began a raucous revolution

but i myself subscribe

to a particular notion

my idea of the origin of species

will create some kind of commotion

so in a concise and simplified nutshell

i ‘ll tell you what it is i think

in the evolutionary history of man

a french fry is the missing link.

© rt tulley