On a cliff over the beaches at Tulum at the time of the Reformation and such other European landmarks the Mayan people built their most accurate clock.  To this day the sun glances the arches perfectly at the exact time to the minute  of the equinox.  In a country that prides itself in mathematical roots, calendar precision and currency trading with visitors, a loose precision dominates the art of money.

 

There is a tourist tendency to reduce all artifacts to the same family.  These were not the tables of the money changers in Jerusalem, nor the columns around the colleseum, rather these were columns that held a covered Palapa–shelter from the heat and a way for the breeze to cool the temple courts in Chitzen Itza.  Now that brings my wandering thoughts back to money.

When I glance at the archeological marvels, the history, the smallpox scars, I am humbled by the rich historical plenty and the present chaos of culture styles.  Sun, sex, drugs n tourists appear the new math.  Yesterday I stopped and looked at a stainless steal commercial range ( four burners, grill, griddle and two ovens) and I marvelled at both the manufactured precision and the seasoned-by-experience practical design!  The mathematics, peso conversions and product all read like current affairs.

Somewhere in the course of history, my version rather than a Mayan version, a euro-centric subtext emerged.   The Mayan temple court was a sanctuary of celebration for the community, a place of Shalom.  When we pause to compare mythologies maybe the peso like the shekel is not the place to start.  Maybe all the narratives need re-alignment with human need to conquer greed.