Here we are in crisp November, Halloween ornaments, costumes, and masks put away. A new full moon before us and the fall television season in full swing, but is it what we really want? We human beings in spite of all our modern amenities are a tribal creature. Sure we have smart phones, and tablets we can view a sporting event or even a soap opera while waiting for an airplane to board. But what we really want is a story, a diversion from our real lives. We are already living the future foretold in animated cartoons such as The Jetsons’ or even a futuristic world Jules Verne might have imagined in his novels. Take it out of the future and knock it back ten thousand years and what we really want is an affirmation that our story will be told again to future tribes. It is why ancient Rome and Greece are the repositories of our early histories and why cave paintings are all the more fabulous.

The works of Homer were recited at festivals and Grecian plays immortalized their heroes and villains. It was in fact these great stories that fostered the imaginations of John Milton, and Dante Alighieri to compose their fabulous poems even hundreds of years later are still published and sold to new generations of people. These stories unite us as one tribe, the human tribe affirming what was great before is still great today. Great literature, like fine art is something that preserved keeps giving and giving like a fabled horn of plenty.

We hunker down in front of our giant television screens to see our favorite sports teams compete for the championship and the much prized trophy. We align ourselves with them by wearing their jersey to be a member of their tribe. Be it in the stadium or in the dark of our den seated in front of a glowing screen eating game food and drinking our beverage of choice what we come away with is that a sports team’s last season is much like an actor’s last performance; there is no rest for the victorious and always next season for the losers… Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Sophocles’ Electra has survived the test of time much like tomb jewelry buried with Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamen Howard Carter uncovered in 1922. He brought it to light for us to be dazzled again thousands of years later. That story is still being told today as more of the history is revealed via x-rays and DNA. Is it possible that Super Bowl winners today will be immortalized and remembered a thousand years hence? It could happen; we as a society participate and rally around the Olympics every two years for the winter and summer events.

We should make time to embrace those activities and traditions that bring us together and celebrate as our tribal ancestors might have in a sporting event or perhaps a theatrical presentation or even in music. We want to believe that a thousand years from now someone will think our contemporary heroes had transcended our era to be something that stands the test of time, like the science of Nicholas Copernicus or the words of Sophocles or perhaps the skilled athleticism of the Pittsburg Steelers in their six, yes count them six Super Bowl wins.

Our November full moon is an opportunity to look up from the stadium or away from our television to glimpse something that our most ancient tribes hunted under, fought under, danced under and even loved under. While there will always be next season for our team to win there will only ever be one November 2017 full moon; enjoy!