Few places in the world fire the imagination like Avignon on the Rhone River in France.  One of the places which I have thought I would see for sure in my lifetime has been the Pont du Gard a few miles from Avignon in France.  I'll go there tomorrow, but today I prepared myself for the sight of that 2000-year-old bridge with its aqueduct by exploring the old city of Avignon that spreads out from the Palais de Papes, the Pope's Palace which was the seat of the Catholic Church for a brief time in the fourteenth century.  A review of the history of Avignon is a reminder that religion of some sort or other has been central in recorded human activity for as long as people have been leaving records of their existence. The complete history of mankind is a record of many failed, botched attempts to build institutions around religious ideas and activities. It's a long story, and the end of it, of course, hasn't been written.  This Blog writing isn't about religion but about my fascination with persistence of a notion by people all over the world since they cropped up in the evolutionary chain of development of living organisms  that they think they need religion.  

The BLOG post doesn't include a picture that I didn't get.  As I was eating breakfast this morning in the dining of the river boat that will be my home for the next couple of weeks, I had a hard time taking my eyes off the scene on the opposite side of the river from where our boat was docked.  The river was like a mirror, and the image of the upside-down reflection of a long red houseboat was laid out perfectly in the still water.  I intended to go out on deck with my camera as soon as I finished breakfast, but by the time I was ready to go, a rain shower  and a couple passing boats destroyed the picture.  The calm water and the perfect image didn't return at all today.  I'll try to get the picture tomorrow.