The Owl of Minerva

'The Owl of Minerva only spreads her wings at dusk'

What he didn't know is that it is dusk of the first day of Spring! And all of Summer lays ahead!

Hegel said that wisdom- the 'Owl of Minerva'- only develops late, as a civilization appears to be dying.

But he was from a young civilization, barely in its teen years. He did not know the larger cycles of history- only the short ones.

Confucius and Lao-tzu appeared as the Zhou Empire of China was breaking up. The brilliant Golden Ages of Shang and Zhou China were behind them. A dark, difficult time lay ahead.

But past that dark, difficult time was a new Golden Age- the Golden Age of Han China!

And after that, another one, and another one- for two thousand years!

Plato and Aristotle appeared as the Athens of the Golden Age was dead, killed in the Pelopponesian War.

Soon to come would be the Hellenistic Era and the Golden Age of Rhodes and Alexandria! And after that, the brilliant Pax Romana!

The Buddha appeared in a great age of wisdom that was the culmination of 500 years of growth in north India since the flowering of the Ganges Valley.

To come was over 2,000 years of great Kingdoms, beautiful Empires, and Golden Ages in India, from Ashoka to the Guptas to the Cholas to Akbar!

The owl of Minerva only spreads her wings at dusk.

But it is dusk of the first day of Spring! And all of Summer still lays ahead!

Sincerely,

David S. Annderson

P.S. And thus, all the beauty and wisdom of the Summer of Love lives on, to this day, in the heart of Japan, in every Bollywood movie, in Korean R&B music and television shows, in a million expressions in India, China, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and Japan today! One cycle came to an end in America- but the next cycle is alive in the heart of Asia! And maybe soon America will rejoin them! For America's youth knows Asian pop culture very well!