Rising From the Ashes

Throughout time many cultures have had a myth about a creature, usually a bird, that had the ability to become reborn after death.  In many cultures such as the ancient Egyptian, Arabian, Chinese, Japanese, Russian and Native American this creature was a bird.  In Egypt it was referred to as the Benu or Bennu.  In China it was called the Feng Huang, in Japan the Ho-OO.  In Russia the name of this particular creature is the Zhar-Ptitsa and the Native Americans called it the Thunderbird.  What the creature in all of these cultures seemed to have in common is the idea of rebirth.

In the Arabian version it is described as a bird with a colorful plumage and a tail of gold and scarlet (or purple, blue, and green according to some legends). It has a 500 to 1000 year life-cycle, near the end of which it builds itself a nest of twigs that then ignites; both nest and bird burn fiercely and are reduced to ashes, from which a new, young phoenix or phoenix egg arises, reborn anew to live again. The new phoenix is destined to live as long as its old self. In some stories, the new phoenix embalms the ashes of its old self in an egg made of myrrh and deposits it in the Egyptian city of Heliopolis (literally "sun-city" in Greek). It is said that the bird's cry is that of a beautiful song. The Phoenix's ability to be reborn from its own ashes implies that it is immortal, though in some stories the new Phoenix is merely the offspring of the older one. In very few stories they are able to change into people.

The town of Phoenix actually took its name for its own ability to create life out of the ashes, so to speak.  The naming of the city is attributed to a spurious English “Lord” named Darrell Duppa.  Duppa was a well-educated world traveler who, it was rumored, was given a substantial allowance by his wealthy English relatives to remain permanently at large.
His raucous lifestyle, highlighted by epic bouts with dipsomania was, no doubt, a source of embarrassment to his relatives and contributed to his banishment to Arizona. It was said “Lord” Duppa was fluent in seven languages. Unfortunately for his listeners, the erudite eccentric spoke all seven in the same paragraph.

Duppa was a member of a committee chosen to select a name for the new settlement on the banks of the Salt River one sunny October day in 1870. An intrepid group of entrepreneurs led by Jack Swilling had cleaned out some prehistoric canals dug by the now-vanished Hohokam people; an irrigation company had been organized and plans were being made to develop farms. Soon the arid valley would grow crops to supply the military post at Fort McDowell and the mining camps throughout the Bradshaw Mountains. Now they decided it was time to give the place a name.

Swilling wanted to call the new settlement “Stonewall,” after his hero, the late “Stonewall” Jackson. Another member chose Salina for the Salt River. Still another wanted Pumpkinville for the wild pumpkins growing in the area. When Duppa’s turn came, he arose and waxed eloquently on the ancient civilization that had once flourished on the land where they stood. He predicted the rise of another great civilization on the same site. In his inimitable elocutionary style Duppa compared the phenomenon to the mythical Phoenix bird in Egypt that lived 500 years, then rose from its own funeral pyre to flourish again. Needless to say, Duppa’s proposal carried the day and the Phoenix we know today is certainly flourishing with transplated octogenarians seeking the fountain of youth in the sun.

We'll actually be traveling to Phoenix on our Ride Across America.  Although we will be staying in Wickenburgh (the from which Jack Swilling had ventured in his fact finding mission) we hope to visit Amy's friend Matthew who is the artistic director of The Actor's Theatre of Phoenix. 

While I'm riding through the desert and trying not to let my brains fry like the mythical egg on a sidewalk



I'll be carrying with me a particular picture in my head;

  

You see, this past Sunday I had my entire outlook changed by the amazing gift of song and support shown by a group of ACT alumni, current ACTers, their parents, friends and family as they put together a Musical Cabaret to benefit Sunrise to help the Connor's Army Ride Across America.  It was a much needed shot of love and confidence that I sorely need at this point.

In the last few months I've really been feeling as if this quest to ride across America for Sunrise Day Camp has been nothing but a midlife crisis and it has now spiralled into something that is going to be a miserable failure and put my family through hell for no good reason.  Because of all the crap that's gone on this past year with vindictive parents, I had really been feeling that I was doomed to not be able to raise any measureable funds simp due to the fact that my main base of support had been severed from me.

All that changed this past Sunday as these amazing alumni and their parents put together a benefit and raised a couple of thousand dollars (figures are still coming in) for the kids of Sunrise.  I was abashed, humbled and touched by the love and support given to me by all of these young people.  More than anything else it has been a reminder that the journey  my family and I are about to embark upon IS important, that people believe in us and that we can do it.  My spirit has been renewed and I feel as if I CAN do this!  I can rise from the ashes of this blue funk and make it happen - I have too many people who believe in me and I can't let them, or the kids of Sunrise down.

And now, a couple of musical interludes to share this theme of rising from the ashes the first from Crowns Club;



And now, in the words of Monty Python, time for something completely different - Annihilator;



That's all for now, time is ticking down and we're getting close.

Stay well and I'll see you on the road!