Sunday, December 28, 2008

Voices From the Dust


Lucy bought me a neat book for Christmas, Voices From the Dust , by David Calderwood; signed by the author who just happened to be hawking his work at our local LDS book store. The introduction explains how letters and books written by some of the original “chroniclers” of the American continents, letters and books which have been collecting dust in private libraries or collections, contain information of great worth for those seeking to know the history and customs of America’s inhabitants prior to and during the European conquests.

The author starts off by reminding the reader of a line in Isaiah , “And thou shalt be brought down, and shalt speak out of the ground, and thy speech shall be low out of the dust, and thy voice shall be, as of one that hath a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and thy speech shall whisper out of the dust.”

I wonder how much dust has collected on other important books, “Oh, I’ll get around to reading that, someday.” Turn off the television and get out the reading glasses; times a wasting! I’ve only gotten into the book a short way and have enjoyed the writing style and presentation of historical documents; can hardly wait for opportunities to pick it up and go ever further.

Some of the information brought to light in Voices From the Dust has been sitting around collecting dust for hundreds of years, not considered important enough to review; or worse, at odds with political or religious leaders of that time and put away into a dark closet so as not to rock the boat. Of course if you’d rather watch another episode of Survivor, the Simpsons or some of the other gobble-de-gook on television; well, this book probably wouldn’t interest you anyway.

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