The Just

One of my favorite characters in History was Aristides, son of Lycimachus, an Athenian statesman who lived through the most turbulent times of the city of Athens. Let me tell you why Aristides is such a badass:

1.) He was present at the Battle of Marathon. Aristides led his tribe of to Marathon to fight some Persian invaders. Then he stood guard over the battlefield as the rest of the Athenians quick-marched back to Athens ready to fight the Persians as they attempted a landing near Athens.

2.) He was present at the naval Battle of Salamis, and helped galvanize the Greeks against the Persians during their second invasion attempt. He even worked together with one of his most hated rivals Themistocles, to secure a major naval victory against the Persians.

3.) He was present at the Battle of Plataea. Working together with Greek allies, Aristides led a contingent of 8,000 Athenians against another large Persian force, defeated them and secured Greece's autonomy for at least a while.

4.) Aristides was also responsible for the allocation of the treasury of the Delian League, which was to be a force set up to repel any future Persian invasions. No one else was believed to be as equitable as Aristides, and that's why it became his sole responsibility. The Delian League of the future would come to be the funds for the future Athenian sea empire (Reminds me of the Romulan Star Empire).

Athenian sea empire

Romulan Star Empire

These are some of the most important events in the history of the Classical Greeks. He was present at all them!

Probably one of my favorite stories about Aristides is this one though:

In Athens, there was a custom that was enacted to ensure that in the democracy there could be no single man who could hold more power than anyone else. There would be a vote in the Athenian assembly every year to exile a citizen whose powers had grown too great, 6000 votes were necessary to exile any citizen and after it had passed the exiled citizen would be unable to return to Athens for 10 years under penalty of death.

You can see how this could be abused, you and 6000 of your buddies don't like someone, and that guy gets banished for 10 years. If only that could still be done today... I'm looking at you Lady Gaga.

Someone needs to get punched in her poker face.

So here is how the process works: As everyone gets together for the vote, pottery is broken into pieces, and the members of the assembly scratch the name of the person they want exiled onto the piece of pottery called an ostrakon (where we get the word ostracism today). The votes are tallied, and any citizen voted out of the city has 10 days to pack their stuff and move out.

As the story goes with Aristides, he was present during his own ostracism vote around 480ish BC. While they were scratching the names on the pottery, an illiterate member of the assembly came up to him and asked him to write down the name of 'Aristides' upon his ostrakon. Aristides asked the man if Aristides had wronged him in any way, the man said "No, and I do not even know him, but it irritates me to hear him called 'The Just' all the time." With that, Aristides wrote his own name on the ostrakon and was duly subjected to exile.

I think it's pretty cool that there are some extant shards of pottery left with his name on them!

Engraved: Aristides, Son of Lysimachus, Total Badass

Judo

Prior to moving to this beautiful island of St. Kitts, I had reservations... about a number of things. Probably the thing that weighed 3rd or so down the list of reservations was missing out on Judo, which has by this time been one of my great obsessions. Disclaimer: This post gets weird, and it's about Judo, read at your own peril!

Watch this video to get a little context. It's actually a pretty damn awesome video too (I think).

To the outsider, I can understand why Judo looks confusing, or even nonsensical. Two guys (in an slightly homoerotic wrestling match), wearing white cotton trash bags are grabbing each others' jackets and trying to throw them down on the ground and choke or (almost) break their bones for funzies. I can see why people wouldn't want to watch or do it.

We're taught not to fight growing up (like we should) and that's why for most people, Judo isn't a good fit. That's ok, that's normal; you're probably a person who contributes and is an active and healthy member of society, with no underlying mental condition.

That's why to do Judo, you have to have a little something wrong with you. I'm not saying that in a funny, trying to be cool, "haha" way. I think there is something missing (or present) in a person's mind that makes them mildly or moderately unstable if they like to do Judo; or perhaps more correctly, if someone likes Judo they have some kind of mental issue.

I had a friend once tell me that to succeed in Judo (for yourself) you either have to be an "S"(adist) or an "M"(asochist). Ignoring again the slightly homoerotic undertones, there is a lot of truth to it.

You start off in Judo knowing nothing, (though many-- myself included-- think they do) and you are continually ground into dust on the mat. Consistently, and constantly destroyed, your body slowly breaks down and every day you come home more bruised and bloodied than the last.

For experienced Judo players, though, it is like fighting an infant.

At this point, for almost every beginner, there is a moment when you can stop, when your brain is tricking you to fail:

"Relax... you've been going consistently for a while now. You can miss one practice. No one will even care that you're gone. I'm not even that good"

It's with this idea that people fade away in Judo. And you know what? That's ok. For most, Judo isn't a good fit, it's best to do what you want to do, and if Judo isn't it, don't waste the nice peoples' time.

The people who stay are either the "M's":

"I like this. I may not be very good, but I need this to: get in shape/get stronger/get mentally tough/get ladies."

Or the "S's":

"I like this. I want to: be good/be the best/crush my enemies, see them driven before me, and hear the lamentation of their women."

Both the "S's" and the "M's" are eventually tempered, and probably their view on what they get out on Judo changes. They certainly don't get ladies, they don't necessarily crush their enemies (some do though!), but they always remain "S's" and "M's".

Which does that make me...?

Welcome

Welcome to this blog; I'm hoping this will be a readable, I'll do my best!

On here I'll probably be meaning to write on a number of things on a number of different subjects. Foremost of which will be my life here on the beautiful island of St. Kitts. Let's start off with a shortened history of the island itself.

St. Kitts was a relatively successful British Colony during the early-mid 17th century, and traded largely in sugar, as it was grown very successfully (and still does) on the island. Christopher Columbus introduced sugar cane into the Caribbean (and the island of St. Kitts actually used to be called St. Christopher). The island has traded hands between the French and British, but St. Kitts was eventually returned to the British by the French as terms of the Treaty of Paris in 1783 which also formally ended the United States' War for Independence.

Caption reads: Natives in a Sugar cane Field (at lunch time) St. Kitts B.W.I. [British West Indies]



Brimstone hill, a (fairly) impregnable fortress located on the Northewesternish side of the island that the British and French fought over in the mid to late 18th century. Interestingly, (to me at least) the citadel is an examples of Trace Italienne architecture. Trace Italienne forts or probably more easy to remember, "Star Forts", were a evolution of the classic castle-type fortification. People always think gunpowder killed the castle, a little, but not quite. Castles instead became these:

Walls were made so that there would always be a line of fire going towards the bad guys, and the bad guys would have a difficult time getting a shot head-on on the good guys (if you are the defender that is). Earth works were also a trend for these forts with stone becoming less important and large packs of dirt behind the walls became more important, this softened the blow of cannon fire allowing the walls to take a greater impact from cannon fire. These forts were in vogue from the 16th century even up to the 19th! Cool stuff.

I did find it interesting that Brimstone Hill is less of a slave to architectural style than it was to the geographical and geological conditions that it rested upon. Most defensive fortifications use the terrain to create the greatest possible defensibility, but Brimstone takes this to a new level! I sure wouldn't want to storm it. It was (according to Wikipedia) known as the 'Gibraltar of the West Indies' [citation needed]. ;)

So fast forward a couple of hundred years and here we are. Sugar cane grows still, but there is no market for it abroad; tourism is now the most profitable industry on the island, and many farmers who had jobs, don't anymore and many are (understandably) upset. I will from here on, however, leave the politics for someone who knows better.

Well that's all for now though, I hope I haven't bored you yet! Much more to come, and more variety too.

PS If any of the above images or any images I ever use are copyrighted and the owner would like them taken down, please let me know in the comments below. I have done and will do my best to only use images that are not copyrighted or are "fair use" images.