A New Beginning Ch. 13

It's a lot easier to fence off our fishing and swimming area here; it's larger too. There are some rocks sticking out of the water forming a small island about twenty meters out and to the left of our swimming area. The rock island is oblong and about thirty meters long by about ten at its widest. We built a bamboo wall from the shore out to these rocks. We still have to finish constructing the wall on the right out from the shore to the rocks.

We are not only in the process of sectioning off the lake but we are also using bamboo to fence off a section of the beach for us to use and play in. This is so we can keep out any carnivores that may come by while we are working, playing or just sunbathing on the beach. We didn't do this before but after the Dromaesaurids attacked Chantelle and her exploring party we all figured that it would be for the best.

Anyway, Laci noticed a turtle on the beach about 100 meters away. She was laying her eggs. They stood back and watched her. When the turtle finished she covered her eggs and crawled back into the water. The five of them promptly dug up her eggs and brought them up with them when they finished their laundry.

Joshua asked them why they didn't kill the turtle. Anthony said that they were so absorbed in watching her lay her eggs and talking about digging them up when she finished that they didn't think about it.

The next morning while we were eating a breakfast of turtle eggs and baked fish, we heard what sounded like someone blowing on a conch shell. Actually it sounded more like it was a whole orchestra of conch shells. We all went to the mouth of the cave to see what it was.

There on the beach where the turtle had laid her eggs were about 50 or 60 Deadmeatosaurus sauropods, the small Apatosaurus type dinosaurs with the Stegosaurus-like bony plates sticking out of its back. They were about 3 meters at the hip with a tail some 8 meters long and a neck 6 meters long.

The males were more colorful than the females; the one Valarie filmed was a male. Both males and females were dark brown with yellow and light brown spots but the male's colors were brighter and their spots were larger. The babies were all dark brown and the juveniles were dark brown with yellow and light brown spots.

It was a good thing that Aleks and the others dug up the eggs. If they hadn't then all the eggs would have been crushed. The brutes stayed there most of the morning drinking and bathing. They would dip their heads under the water and come up and spit out water onto each others backs. Sometimes they would keep their heads under the water for several minutes with only their nostrils above the water. Their nostrils are on the top of their heads. We all enjoyed watching the dinosaurs playing in the water.

It was only about zero nine hundred as we stood in the mouth of Hope Cave watching the Deadmeatoasaurs. Except for Akira, Yves and Joseph, most of us were bare-chested -- me, Laci, David and Natalie were completely naked. I was nursing Dawn Marie and Regina was nursing Niño Esperanza. Chantelle and Beth returned to the nursery to watch Yves Adam, little Joseph and the other children.

Suddenly Veronica asked what morality were we going to teach our children. She wanted to know what we were going to teach our children about nudity and sex. Were we going to continue to go naked in front of them? What were we going to tell them about the love nests?

Since it was a Sunday morning and no one had any plans to do anything, we decided to have a meeting to discuss it. After about an hour or so we came to a consensus that none of us wants to raise our children in an atmosphere where the women are treated differently than the men, as this will lead to chauvinism.

We want to build our future based upon the principle that we are all equal in the eyes of God and the law. We want to teach our children that no one person, race, creed, ethnicity, nationality, political persuasion, sex or sexual orientation is superior to another. We are all equal with the same red blood running through our veins.

As for how we want to raise our children, what we will teach them and what morality we will live by, we all came to a consensus on that too. We will teach them that there is nothing wrong with nudity and that nudity is a natural part of life, not something to be flaunted or exploited. Nor is nudity something to be ashamed of. It is an object of art.

We will teach them that sex is not for children. It is an adult gift. Sex too should not be flaunted or exploited. Nor should sex be use as a bribe or tool of coercion of any kind. We will teach our children a universal morality of love towards their neighbor, hope in their future and faith that God will not let us down if we just do our part. We will instill in them the necessity of obeying the Golden Rule.

We want to build a world without hate, racism, intolerance, bigotry, prejudice, fanaticism, hypocrisy and chauvinism. Unlike our ancient ancestors who didn't know better, we know what these evils can do and we intend to teach this to our children so that they will not grow up in a world that is polluted, exploited, overpopulated and filled with greed, corruption, contamination and crime. We are not going to let hate, fear, laziness, despair, arrogance and self-righteousness to take root in the minds of our children.

We are going to teach them to be tolerant of others -- particularly those whom they perceive to be different -- to use the scientific method to find the solutions to their problems, to use all their resources with prudence, to administer impartial justice to all and to govern themselves in a logical manner and without favoritism. But above all, we are going to teach them to seek truth in everything they do and to be humble in that search.

Unlike our ancient ancestors, who were uneducated and ignorant when they built their world, we are building a future with knowledge based upon the facts discovered through the scientific method. Our ancient ancestors relied on superstition and conjecture whenever they decided to do something. We are relying upon truth, reason and logic to accomplish our goals.

Our ancient ancestors followed the precarious whims of self serving monarchs and aristocrats, unholy shamans and priests, and greedy influential merchants and businessmen. We are following the will of the majority and granting equal representation and equal justice to all. Our ancient ancestors did not have the hindsight of seeing the future consequences of their inadequate decisions. We have that retrospection. We are building a brighter future for our children.

After we finished, Josephine suggested that we end our discussion with a prayer. Yves added that we should end all our discussions with a prayer. I was immediately humbled. We have been here almost a year and a half and I had never held a Sunday prayer service of any kind. I thought of Father Ray and I was ashamed. We held an impromptu prayer service.

I read some scripture from the bible I downloaded onto the laptop and Yves led us in the Lord's Prayer. While we were praying I looked around at everyone. Each of us had on varying amounts of clothing; me, Laci, David and Natalie were still nude. I wondered what Father Ray would say about that. I thought about it for a moment and came to the conclusion that he would say that God looks at our hearts, not at what kind of clothes we wear or don't wear. I then promised myself to have some kind of prayer service every Sunday from then on.

Then Dawn began to cry. I had to change her fig leaf diaper. I wish we could find another leaf that was just as soft and durable. I tried to get everyone to change the name of this leaf. But I was unsuccessful.

I mentioned earlier that we only have one duty, hauling the waste and trash up to the top of the cliff every evening. Those who have the duty try to finish it before the sun sets. About two or three times a week those who have trash duty also have to collect eggs from the Egg Warblers whenever we need eggs.

We never collect more than about 30 or 40 eggs from the thousands of nests. They lay four or five eggs each but we never take more than one or two from a nest. These birds are very docile. They do not try to prevent us from taking the eggs from their nests. As we approach the nesting bird, she will fly away and return when we leave.

We put the eggs in baskets and put the baskets in the water running through the channel on the left side of the cave. The water is cold enough to keep them somewhat refrigerated, at least for a day or so until we need them.

Both the Egg Warblers and their eggs have a unique taste. I can't quite describe it. I want to say that the eggs taste something like pineapple but I know that's not right. I don't know what the Egg Warblers taste like. I'll have to think about it some more. The only Egg Warblers we eat are those we catch at the trash heap.

Two days ago Joseph and Juan had trash duty. They had just finished hauling up the trash and were on the way down, preparing to collect some eggs. Joseph said that just as he reached out to collect some eggs his foot slipped. He lost his balance and fell.

It's about a 70 degree slope and a 50 meter drop from the top. He slid down about 30 meters before he managed to grab onto a bush. He was banged up pretty bad with a lot of scrapes and bruises but Doc Yves said that he was Ok. He spent a couple of days sitting in the nursery helping to watch the babies.

Yesterday evening three more turtles came ashore to lay their eggs. We killed two turtles and collected the eggs of all three turtles. We dug three holes near our sectioned off area on the beach and reburied some of the eggs, making sure to include some eggs from each turtle. That way if more Deadmeatosaurus dinosaurs or some other large sauropod comes along they won't get crushed. We voted to leave these eggs alone as we don't want to overfish our lake.

David is going to use the turtle shells to make baby baths. He made a soup with the turtle meat for our evening meal the next day. Chantelle was feeding the soup to Joseph and Dawn. She teasingly asked me, "Do you all eat turtle soup in New Awlins?" I smiled at her vain attempt to imitate my accent and answered her "Yes, we all eat it down in my home town." Then we both laughed.

All 20 of us treat all 12 children as though they were our own. That might be partially due to the fact that each of us is a parent of at least one of the children. But I believe that the main reason is because of the consensus we have come to on how we want to raise our children and what we want to teach them.

We feel that it is better to let those who are better at doing something do it. Some are better at making tools and arrow heads than others. Some are better at making clothing than others and some are better cooks than others.

We have all also faced up to the fact that some people make better parents than other people. Some people cannot give a child all the love and nurturing he or she may need to grow up to be a normal adult. They may love their children but are unable to raise them properly. So we are allowing those who will be better at parenting raise the children -- although we all have a hand in doing it.

As I said earlier, Chantelle, Beth, Regina and Vickie take care of the children while the rest of us do our own chores -- make crossbow bolts or other weapons, tan or sew clothing, cook, fix things, wash dishes or any number of chores that must be done.

All of us wear at least two hats. Except Doc Yves and Beth, we all go out on hunting parties and food forages. David and Josephine cook. Chantelle, Vickie and Regina are nannies. Joshua, Louis and Thomas make and repair tools and weapons while Natalie, Juan and Leonard help me with the tanning. Anthony goes out on almost every hunting party and makes spears. We are all getting better at throwing them using the spear throwers Yves made.

The rest of the crew make crossbow bolts, make and repair our clothing or generally pitch in and help whoever needs help. The only two people who don't leave camp on hunts or food forages are Beth and Doc Yves. Yves helps out with the cooking, while Beth is both nurse and nanny.

We all collect firewood and fig leaves and work to keep the camp clean. We throw our trash onto the dumb waiter into the port-o-lets. Of course, none of us is excused from trash duty. But unlike before, no one minds doing it now. At least no one complains as much. It only takes two people to haul it up to the top of the cliff each evening and then you're through with it for ten days.

On Sundays Doc Yves, Joshua or I preside at the prayer service. After our prayer service we play checkers or cards -- we lost the three of clubs in one of the decks -- read a story on the laptop or we just relax. In the evenings we watch our movie. Yves is in the process of carving out some chess pieces for himself and Joshua. When he finishes I'm going to ask him to teach me how to play.

Sometimes we play baseball on the beach -- we still only use two bases. We play a game of water touch tag or touch football. The tag or the football game can sometimes get rather sensuous with everyone "touching" each other. But it is all good natured fun. We have stopped playing soccer until we can make a better soccer ball; the other one finally fell totally apart.

Exactly what will happen when our world catches up with the world we left 70 million years from now, I don't know. But two things I do know. Our descendants will be ready for them. I'm also sure Father Ray will be watching over us and protecting us the whole time.

We've only just begun.