Lake Urmia Drying Up

Vartan’s Great Oak

In 450 AD, one year before the famous Battle of Vartanantz, General Vartan Mamigonian led his troops to the region of Kazakh to defend Christian Armenia against the Zoroastrian Persians. After defeating the Persians, Mamigonian led his troops back home and along the way stopped in an area today known as Aknaghbyur, Armenia. Exhausted, hungry, thirsty and tending to their wounded, they amassed by a spring, later known as Vartan’s Spring.

This rare photograph from 1959 shows Armenians in the border village of Aknaghbyur with an Oak Tree planted by General Vartan Mamigonian more than 1,500 years ago

At this moment, Vartan Mamigonian performed a notable act. He planted an acorn to celebrate the recent victory. This deed represented his unwavering commitment to a free and prosperous Armenia. It symbolized the hope that lies within all Armenians who believe in the future of our homeland. Vartan Mamigonian, who was politically savvy, knew that the odds for Armenia were grim, and as a soldier, he must have also known that he would not live long enough to see that acorn turn into an oak tree.

That acorn did turn into a mighty oak and survived for more than 1,500 years before it was struck down by lightning in 1960. Vartan Mamigonian’s Oak Tree is a legend in Armenia and people travel from all over the world to pay respects to what is now an outdoor shrine. For generations, Armenians would travel to what is now the village of Aknaghbyur and drink from Vartan’s Spring and pray next to Vartan’s Tree. They did so for strength in battle, to heal the sick, to pay homage to Vartan Mamigonian and to hope for a better Armenia.

Today, the remnants of Vartan’s Tree remain for all to see. A khachkar and a small church border his tree. Marshal Hovannes Baghramian visited the site in 1976 and planted three new oaks. They now reach for the sky in the same way that Vartan’s Oak did.

source: http://www.armeniatree.org/atpnews/news_press_051010.htm

The green thing didn’t exist back then…

This was actually a Facebook post that I found intriguing.. the manner in which the young cashier responds is very similar to those who around today who blame the problems we have on the older generation being neglectful of the environment.

Checking out at the grocery store recently, the young cashier suggested I should bring my own grocery bags because plastic bags weren’t good for the environment. I apologized and explained, “We didn’t have this green thing back in my earlier days.” The clerk responded, “That’s our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations.” She was right about one thing our generation didn’t have the green thing in “Our” day. So what did we have back then? After some reflection and soul-searching on “Our” day here’s what I remembered we did have…. Back then, we returned milk bottles, pop bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles repeatedly. So they really were recycled. But we didn’t have the green thing back in our day. We walked up stairs, because we didn’t have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn’t climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks. But she was right. We didn’t have the green thing in our day. Back then, we washed the baby’s nappies because we didn’t have the throw-away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 220 volts — wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that young lady is right. We didn’t have the green thing back in our day. Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house — not a TV in every room, and the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the wall. In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn’t have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn’t fire up an engine and burn gas just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn’t need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity. But she’s right. We didn’t have the green thing back then. We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull. But we didn’t have the green thing back then. Back then, people took the bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their mothers into a 24-hour taxi service. We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn’t need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint. But isn’t it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn’t have the green thing back then? Repost this so another selfish old person who needs a lesson in conservation from a smarty-pants young person can add to this!

Just think… our parents and grandparents knew a lot more about conservation than we will ever know.. and they knew it without ever being told or even considering the need for protecting the environment. Lifestyles and society dictated a cleaner world…