Beauty’s Origin

The great African rift valley. image credit Zohar African Safaris – http://www.zoharafricansafaris.com/the-great-rift-valley/

100,000 years ago in Africa’s East Rift Valley long before the land was called “Kenya” but was instead just Earth and Sky, a small tribe of humans picked clean the meat from the bones. After successfully scavenging fallen oryx and defending its remains from predators, the tribe lit a fire and roasted the oryx’s succulent meat. The tribe was full and happy. As the spring sun set and its light faded into the glow of perimeter camp fires, the tribesmen paired off to keep the night’s watch.

The night was clear. The night was moonless. As the perimeter fires dimmed to warm embers, two tribesman lay together with their backs to the fire and stared out across the wide open valley planed by a path of bright, varied stars. The arms of the milky way rose, their textures and swirls shinning down upon the valley. Unbeknownst to the sky watchers, a long period comet had recently sailed in from the outer reaches of the solar system. Heated by the sun, as it passed Earth’s orbit, chunks of dark ice had cut off the comet and into Earth’s vicinity. On that night, 100,000 years ago, Earth’s celestial dance had taken the planet into the comet tail. As ice floating through space smacked against Earth’s atmosphere, the ice fragments heated fast trailing light across the sky.

The two tribesman watched as a streak of light blazed across the sky. The streak repeated. One tribesman grunted and nudged their dozing companion. The companion started and looked up at the night sky. On the backdrop of the milky way, the comet’s tail fizzled and popped punching shooting stars over the horizon line. The companion stared up in amazement. A guttural moment. A deep feeling. On the companion’s lips, “Bel” and expression of awe at the spectacle flew. “Bel” repeated the tribesman. At another fire, a third tribesman watching the celestial dance echoed the expression “Bel” waking some of the others. Soon, all of the tribe sat awake staring up at the sky in awe, verbally repeating the feeling encapsulated in the expression: “Bel”. The liquid “el” stop languidly rolling off their tongues.

The companion didn’t know that the next day, they would be presented with a colorful flower. “Bel” followed by a short laugh, remembering the night’s surprise. “Bel” become a common utterance for the tribe. Repeated, the feeling took on meaning. Parents passed the word on with the rest of their language to their children. That utterance made on a starry, that encapsulated feeling of amazement become a symbol. As languages diverged, the word changed but the root, the inception stayed the same. A feeling became truth.