Good morning Everyone!
We take writing for granted – this marvelous ability we humans have developed as a way to share information with each other, even across thousands of years and millions of miles. Today, in the year 2014, I can read the thoughts of people who lived thousands of years before me. Have you ever wondered how it began? I did, and thought I’d share with you my discoveries from the Ugg Clan Chronicles.
Ugg Hunting
Ugg was hunting one day. While he was gone, Suzugg, the third youngest Ugg child, with some indeterminate assistance from the twins, Uggo and Uggu involving a rock and a fall, hurt her leg. Seeing that the injury was more serious than the normal bump or bruise which every Ugg child was expected to take in stride, Uggette a/k/a Mrs. Ugg, decided that a trip to the local medicine man (two valleys over, fifth cave to the right) was in order.
Local Medicine Man
A trip to the local medicine man was not easy. The local medicine man was only considered the local medicine man because the next closest one was in New Jersey, which would not be discovered for another 8000 years.
Mrs. Ugg was faced with the task of hauling fourteen children, one of whom would have to be carried (Mrs. Ugg nominated Uggo and Uggu as the carriers, in light of her suspicions as to their role in Suzugg’s injuries) across two ridges and two valleys. This meant an overnight trip, which meant that Ugg was going to be back sometime before they could return.
Ugg, Uggette and a few of their blessings
Uggette had to figure out a way to leave Ugg a message he could understand or else he would worry – there were an infinite number of reasons your whole family could be missing when you got home from a hard’s day hunting and only one or two of them were benign. And an unnecessarily worried Ugg was a very angry, grumpy Ugg once he recovered from his relief that everyone was okay.
Multi-tasking as most mothers do – comforting Suzugg, keeping Uggodu and Uggodo from burning down the forest in their quest to see what was and was not flammable (we’ll discuss the history of alchemy and chemistry some other time), explaining to Uggita and Uggito that no, you could NOT eat every plant you found in the forest indiscriminately and keeping a sharp eye on Guidugg, who never missed a moment of mischief if he could help it – the harassed Uggette was hard put to find a message that would make sense.
Guidugg
Uggette finally drew a stick figure in the ground of the cave with an X over one leg and drew an arrow in the direction of the medicine man’s cave with fifteen dots underneath it, thereby inventing pictographs, numbers and art at the same time.
Uggette was right; the trip did end up being an overnight one. They reached the medicine man about an hour before sunset. While he took care of Suzugg, the medicine man’s sympathetic wife took care of Uggette – putting Uggette’s fourteen children with her own ten and placing the four oldest from either family in charge of the rest – and sitting Uggette down on the nearest rock for a relaxing cup of tea.
The Medicine Man’s State of the Art Woven Rug
When Ugg arrived around midnight, worried, tired and irritated, the medicine man’s wife took care of him too. A peak at his sleeping family assured him all was well, and a quick word with the medicine man assured him that Suzugg’s ankle was only sprained, not broken (or her leg missing, as he had half feared was what was meant by the pictogram – pictograms can be somewhat lacking in terms of precision). He gratefully sank down by Mrs. Uggette on the medicine man’s state of the art woven rug, and gave her a quick hug as he did so, pulling the cured bearskin over him.
And that was the beginning. We’ll move further into the development of writing as recorded in the Chronicles of the Ugg Clan in later posts.
Have a great day!
Nancy
Fn. All images come from http://www.clickartonline.com and are fully protected by copyright.
Tales from the Mom-Side 