Béu : Chapter 8 : Way of life 2
Welcome to béu
..... Identification
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Followers of béu sometimes display subtle allusions to their allegiance. For example a piece of jewelry or a small tatoo featuring three shapes ... never identical ... but repeating the same theme. For example this earing ...
would suggest that the wearer might be a follower.
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Also beumai reveal themselves through behaviour ...
1) When giving or receiving any object ... no matter how small ... always two hands are used. This is considered polite.
2) Bodily contact is not considered polite with people not of the immediate family (at least in formal occasions) so no handshakes ... definitely no hugging. A gesture like the Thai "wai" is used for greetings.
3) Never any eating or drinking when walking ... when standing is acceptable. Also talking with a full mouth is considered rude.
4) Farting, betching and making a noise while eating is considered rude.
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If two beumai meet they might start inserting well known béu phrases into the conservation. If both are comfortable with this the percentage of the conversation undertaken in béu increases. A good knowledge of the language is respected.
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..... Squares of Honour
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Also called Noble Squares.
An individual can be awarded a noble square for service to society. They are not awarded for continuous good service but for one piece of service. For example … writing a book (fiction or non-fiction) which is greatly admired, coming up with a new scientific theory or in war … planning a clever campaign.
They are not awarded for skill in games or breaking a running record for example. See these two examples …
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The recipient of the award should display it on his ??? . Also the children of the awardee have the right to display the reward. And the children of these children have the right to display the reward. So it passes on down the generations until the 432nd* person has displayed it. Nobody after this 432nd person can display the square. When they die the square is retired (or faded as they say)
There are 215 different regulations concerning the design of the noble squares. For example the first regulation concerns the % of plain color you are allowed to have without any embellishment … actually this single regulation runs to 2015 words. Anyway … all these stipulations give all the noble squares the same sort of “flavor”.
*432 10 = 30012
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..... Road Signs
Distance signs are placed on the right hand side of the road (cars drive on the RHS of the road by the way). The leftmost place name has a red backgound and this signifies the place that will be arrived at by not changing roads. The other destinations signify places that you will reach by changing road and these places have a non-red coloured background.
The numbers represent wazbai ( 1 wazbai => 3.68 km)
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Above is a more usual distance sign. Usually only one destination is mentioned on a distance sign.
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The above is what to see as you come up to a orthogonal four-way intersection.
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The above is the sign that you will see as you approach a five-way intersection. Note that in this case there is no road leading off to the left at 90 degrees. This is shown on the sign by a vertical black stripe on the leftmost extremity of the top area.
Also note that the angle that a road makes is mirrored by the position of the coloured disc at the top of the sign.
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When the central red disc is missing you know that you are about to join a larger road. The road name will change.
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However if a road joining an intersection makes an angle of less than 90 degrees with the road you are on, then this angle is not represented on the top of the sign. Instead this road is represented by a hemi-disc at the extremity of the top area on the sign.
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And in the unlikely case when you have two of these roads joining from the same side, they are represented ny quarter-discs.
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The above is what you pass through when you enter a town. There can be no "Welcome to Pleasantsville" written. It should just be a plane red colour on top. The name of the town on the sides.
On the opposite side of this sign, the red colour will be green. There will be nothing at all written anywhere on the other side ... next town ???
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..... Street Signs
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Below is a plan view of a typical intersection about halfway along a street. The street is measured from one end. The unit of measurement is 2.13 mtrs In this example the down block starts at 559 units and ends at 630 units, and the up block starts at 637 units and ends at 6EI units. (Remember that we are using base 12 and E stands for eleven).
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[Drawn twice above, just to give clarity to my indication arrow lines]
These street signs are placed in from the corner, a distance equal to 60 % the width of the street (measured building wall to building wall). They are well above head hight and offset from the wall by 60 % of the sign width. The information giver on the sign is ... the distance (from the beginning of the street) of the near side and the far side of the block you are looking at plus the name of the street. The streets that cross "Hanging Apple Street" are not indicated anywhere on "Hanging Apple Street" ... this would be a problem if there was vehicular traffic on the street ... but these streets do not have vehicular traffic.
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(a) and (b) are exactly the same, as is (c) and (d) ... it is just the mean of securing the sign to the wall that changes.
Notice that (a) and (c) are opposite sides of the same metal frame hence they mut be the same physical length. However the space that the numbers take up will vary. To make things match out, in the side with the more compressed numbers, the black space is expanded in 4 places.
No street can be longer than 1,872 units long (about 4 km)
Buildings on the street don't have numbers as such. Or rather the number they are given is equivalent to how far their letterbox is from the beginning of the street (measured in units of 2.13 mtrs of course). If two letterboxes on opposite sides of the street were the same distance along, one of then would be incremented by one unit.
OK ... so far so good. But things get a bit more complicated at street ends (and beginnings). Below is a plan view of the intersection where "Hanging Apple Street"(blue) ends and "Ploughing Horses Street"(green) starts.
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[Above, I haven't pointed out every sign, just enough to give you an idea what is happening]
Zero units is indicated on the sign as a black dot. All signs adjacent to the end or beginning of a street have their distance numbers hi-lited in red. Also if you have a sign indicating strret B and the sign is physically on street A ... then "B" is hi-lited blue.
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The numbers of a street increase as you approach the centre of the city. Also they increase as a street goes anti-clockwise around the centre of the city.
Strip lights are also attached to the side of the buildings. This light is focused onto the signs when it gets dark.
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..... Buildings Signs
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Quite similar to the node sign for roads is the sign giving directions in major buildings (such as airports, train stations etc.). However the position of the coloured circles does not show the angle that the joining road takes at the intersection. It shows the angle from the reader to the destination beacon. Actually there is a big black ring on the floor and it is assumed that the reader is within this ring. It is the angle from this ring to the destination beacon that is represented by the position of the coloured circles.
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At the bottom of the diagram above, can be seen the destination beacon. It is a sphere about 50 cm in diameter. It is supported by a black pillar which is about 6 foot high. The beacon colour follows the colour of the circle in the sign. The beacon should be located in a clear (unobstructed) area maybe about 20 or 30 mtrs from the destination (for example toilets, information desk, screens displaying timetables, passport control etc. etc.). For course the destination should be clearly visible from near the beacon.
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The signs at the middle of the above diagram are found near stairways and escalators. Upon stepping off a stairway the sign on the LHS should be clearly visible. This shows what floor you are on (ground floor is floor one by the way). The other two signs are positioned near the entrance to a stairway and tell you where the stairway is going.
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..... The House Cell
In the Christian religion, for the average adherent, the hour spent in church on Sunday represents the main obligation ... in terms of time anyway. Of course most Christians support their church financially and often their devotion results in some socialising with their fellows believers. This socializing usually has the aim of doing good-works but of course people enjoy socializing and these get-togethers often supply moral support with respect to personal problems and probably there is mutual re-enforcing of beliefs and a feeling of "solidarity" with respect to life's problems and the rest of the world in general.
The main time demand for a beuki is not sitting in a church listening to sermons but privately reading. This reading is done in a special room called a "cell". The volumes containing the body of knowledge that is considered "canonical" is read.
This reading is the most basic obligation however and most also go in for other "duties" such as dietary restrictions and prescribed daily excercise routines (to some extent at least). Many also volunteer time and money to the many activities which are proscribed by béu to promote personal happiness and social cohesion (these activities are actually designed to have the results (mentioned in the above paragraph) which seems like a chance by-product of certain Christian practices).
Other sections will go into detail about the duties touched on above. However this section is only about how the requirement to spend a certain time each day, reading the body of knowledge that béu considers "canonical" * affects the architecture of the typical béu followers place of residence.
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The above shows the plan view of a "cell" : the room in which the reading of the "canonical" works is done. There is usually a cell in every family dwelling. It is a requirement that the cell is perfectly square and is windowless. Also the only lighting permitted is two oil lanterns fitted over either shoulder of the "reader" to cast light over the top of the lectern.
Behind the door is situated the bookcase that contain the "tomes" that constitute the béu canon. It is attached to the wall as opposed to standing on the floor. It can also be recessed into the wall.
Facing the door there is a large tapestry (a poster would also do). The image is usually of an awe-inspiring view of nature. However colourful fractals or geometric patterns are also quite common.
The rectangular object is a lectern. And behind the lectern is a comfy seat. And either side of the seat (above on the wall) are two lanterns.
As can been seen, the seat and the lectern are quite low. The chair is legless and the usual method is just to cross your legs on the floor just to the front of the seat.
It is common to excercise and bathe before doing your daily reading. Also many change into loose robes of a light blue colour, before entering the cell.
On the wall facing the lectern is "the shelf".
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Below is shown a robe that is optionally put on before entering the cell to read. It is light blue ... quite similar to a robe that an Egyptian peasant would wear.
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Below is shown the shelf attached to the wall facing the reader. About 4 or 5 feet of the ground. It is in the shape of an ellipse from which a third has been cut off from the depth, allowing it to be flush with the wall. In the middle is a small naked flame in a glass. Either side of the are two oblong vases with flowers. On the extremities (over the focuses) are two objects d'art. (the support or supports for the shelf are not shown)
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Below is shown one of the lanterns. Obviously to prevent fire these ate placed in fairly substantial brackets connected to the wall.
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Other items sometimes found in the cell ...
The books are meant to be read in 20 minute sittings and there is ofter an egg-times that counts out about 20 minutes. Usually about 6 inches high and kept on a special indentation on the lectern
A large glass goblet filled with marbles. They are numbered and come in different sizes. Used for keeping a record of what chapters have been read. All the marbles from one book would have the same size and colour. Perhaps inside the lectern is a large wooden tray with indentations. One indentation for every marble. When the goblet is empty and the tray is full, the course of study has been completed.
Large cards. A bit like playing cards but bigger and more solid. Each with intricate designs on it. Usually some sort of fancy box for them as well. These are for keeping a record of what chapters have been read.
Obviously if you have the cards you won't need the goblet and vice versa.
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- At the present time, the body of work that is considered "canonical", consists of 15 volume (at the present time)s. However unlike other movements ... in béu, there is actually a mechanism for updating and improving these "proscribed books". The very opposite to every other religion. Every other religion has shown a strong instinct to hastily gather a body of script together and then to "set it in stone" ... well that is a by-product of our mental make-up. Hopefully the results of a more deliberate method will also be considered worthy of reverence ( or a little consideration at least :-) ).
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..... The Revered Volumes
Well there is the main volume of course ???
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Then there is the 5 volumes containing the "5 main subjects".
History ... I have temporarily made Jared Diamonds book, "Guns, Germs and Steel" canonical (until the proper tome can be written of course).
Mathematics ...
Chemistry ... (maybe 30 % of the pages of this book will be given over to organic chemistry)
Physics ... Actually more comprising what I would call Engineering Science ( motion of bodies, forces and their direction within a bridge, etc. etc. )
The language of Béu ... actually a broader linguistic course
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Then there is the 5 volumes containing the "5 minor subjects".
Human Physiology/Health ... maybe about 10 % of the pages of this book will be given over to how other animals do things (after first explaining how the human body does things of course)
The Civil Society which surrounds the beuki ... for example banking system, mortgages, local government, central government, tax, how the tax money is spent etc.etc.
Geology ...
Geography ... physical shape and how countries interconnect ... populations and population growth ... stage of development ( country by country or region by region )
Accounting/economics ...
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We soon get on to "practical" subjects, such as metalwork, which is not really suited to be learnt solely from a book. So no more subjects needed ... better to restrict them to 10.
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Then there is the x volumes concerning behaviour. (That is interpersonal relations)
General behaviour ... I have temporarily made Dale Carnegie's book, "How to win friends and influence people" canonical (until the proper tome can be written of course).
Husband <--> Wife ... I have temporarily made Nancy Van Pelt's book, "Highly Effective Marriage" canonical (until the proper tome can be written of course).
Employee <--> Employer ... There was a very good book by two guys with Dutch sounding names ... published at least 20 years ago ... I can not remember or find the book at the moment.
Child <--> Parent ... ???
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Then there is a smallish book about First Aid
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These canonical book are not set in stone however. There will be a mechanism for updating them.
Maybe this seems like a contradiction of terms ... a canonical body of work, yet mere mortals are allowed to change it. Well for some reason it is accepted by the beuki. Of course the scholars who update the work are very respected and there is a lot of conferring done before any update (also "any" bickering about what to update, is kept well out of the public eye).
..... The Reciprocal Hosting Scheme
Many of the delights of life are found in the company of fellow human beings. Especially like-minded human beings. A lot of the customs of béu are designed especially to help people find that delight, to make them feel as if they are part of something bigger than any individual, to feel as if they are part of a community. The following is a tradition that has been designed with this in mind.
Every 3 seasons everybody is expected to get together with one other person and invite 2 strangers to dine (usually it will be to a home of one of the inviters). This is arranged by the local town hall. It is to facilitate meeting people that live near to you but that you do not know well. It is meant to be an enjoyable occasion for all involved. Only the 4 people should be present. Sometimes the hosts are siblings, sometimes a couple and sometimes friends. Usually the invitees do not know each other very well ... but sometimes they are a couple. Obviously some people are not into this sort of thing so they shouldn't be forced ... but they should be encouraged to be both hosts and guests.
..... The Banners of the Parish
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The country side is divided into "parishes". A parish is a rural communities of 10,000 to 50,000 people (urban areas are very different from rural areas and have a different administrative structure). The shape of a parish approximates to a hexagon. But where possible the parish boundaries follow geographical features, such as streams and ridges etc. In a total featureless landscape the shape of a parish would be a hexagon.
A normal parish would have 6 banner-rows along its boundaries. A banner-row consists of 17 banners about 10 m apart. Each banner is made from a pole about 5 inches in diameter. Each pole is about 7.5 m high and the top 5 m of the pole has an black banner. The cloth of the banner is about 1/3 m wide. When about half the original cloth has been weathered away the cloth should be replaced. Usually an entire is replaced at on time. These banner-rows are normally placed in prominent positions. They can be anywhere along a boundary, but it isn't considered good to have the gap too small or too big between any neighbouring banner-rows.
About 2/3 of the way out from the parish centre there are what are called the outer banners. There are 5 of these banner-rows and each has 11 banners. Again these are in prominent positions and/or well visible from roads. Again each banner-row should be quite spread out with respect to the others. These banners have cloth of light blue. They are arranged to point towards the tunheu. The banner nearest the tunheu is about a meter shorter than the others.
About 1/3 of the way out from the parish centre there are what are called the inner banners. There are 4 of these banner-rows and each has 5 banners. Again these are in prominent positions and/or well visible from roads. Again each banner-row should be quite spread out with respect to the others. These banners have cloth of orange. They are arranged to point towards the tunheu. The banner nearest the tunheu is about a meter shorter than the others.
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Below is what one banner would look like.
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And below is a plan of a typical parish. I just made it a perfect hexagon ... what you would get in perfectly flat land unbroken by any rivers.
| type of banner row ... | numbers of banners per row ... | colour of banners ... | numbers of rows |
| rim | 17 | black | 6 |
| outer | 11 | light blue | 5 |
| inner | 5 | orange | 4 |
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In sparsely populated areas you get what is called a super-parish. They are around 10 times the size of a normal parish (but their population falls within the 10,000 to 50,000 limit). These super-parishes have 2 barrier-rows per side(that is 12 in total), and each banner-row has 19 banners. All these banner dimensions are about 15% to 20% bigger than normal. Super-parishes are more likely to have a very irregular shape. Below is the parameters and an example of what a super-parish would look like.
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| type of banner row ... | numbers of banners per row ... | colour of banners ... | numbers of rows |
| rim | 19 | black | 12 |
| outer | 13 | light blue | 8 |
| inner | 7 | orange | 5 |
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... Units of Measurement
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The béu units of measurement (ajan) all have their own symbol. As with numbers, they are never written out phonetically but the symbol is always used.
Below are the first 12 ajan.
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The unit of distance is the wazbai (3.68 km) .... [ = 1/100012 the radius of the earth ]
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The unit of height is the hún (2.13 m) ............... [ = 1/100012 x wazbai ]
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The unit of weight is the pundai (5.6 kg) .......... [ = 1/100012 the weight of water in a cube of sides one hún long ]
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The unit of time is the dindai (1 day)
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The unit of temperature is the mandai (87 degrees Kelvin)
This makes the temperature of the human body equal to 3 1/2 units. 3.0 manda is minus 12 degrees celsius and 4.0 manda is plus 75 degrees celsius. As the temperature of the air is nearly always between these two limits, when people discuss the weather, they invariably drop the initial "3".
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The unit of area is the nondai (1.94 acres) ... [ = 100012 the area of a square of sides one hún long ]
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The unit of angle is the tendai (90 degrees)
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The unit of pressure is the cundai (3162 N/m2 = 0.485 psi) ... [ = 1,000,00012 x kindai/nondai ]
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The unit of volume is the hundai (3.24 cm3) ... [ = 1/1,000,00012 x the volume of a cube of sides one hún long ]
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The unit of fluid flow is the sloidai* ( 0.4 m3/hour) ... [ = the volume of a cube of sides one hún long / dindai ]
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The unit of energy is the kuandai** ( 17.72 Joules = 2.3 kWh) ... [ hún x kindai ]
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The unit of power is the wildai*** ( 205 μWatt ) ... [ kuandai / dindai ]
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* slòi is a verb meaning to flow.
** kuan is a noun meaning energy.
*** wila is a noun meaning power.
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And below is a further 9 ajan ...
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The unit of force is the kindai (8.32 Newtons) ... [ = pundai x yandai ]
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The unit of speed is the sondai (4.3 cm/sec) ... [ = wazbai/dindai ]
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The unit of acceleration is the yandai (1.486 m/sec/sec) ... [ = 1,000,00012 x wazbai/dinda/dinda ]
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I haven't as yet worked out appropriate values for the electrical units. On thing to note is that sometimes the symbol for electrical potential (voltage) sometimes has a variant (see below).
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This is used where you have direct current.
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Now we must lay down how the unit word interacts with the number and with the 7 number "placeholders". This must be defined for both speech and notation.
Well first of, if the number is such that it is next to sanja (the decimal point), then sanja is replaced with the units being used (in both recitation and in notation). For example hún is the unit used to measure height (it equals 2.237 mtr). My height (1.8 mtrs) would be pronounced hún yapainjauza.
A height of 4.037 mtrs would be pronounced as anja hún apaijauza.
Now if the number doesn't occur next to sanja but on one side of a placeholder, then the unit is placed on the opposite side from the placeholder.
Which is ... by the way ... the current (Oct 2012) record time for the 100 mtr sprint.
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If the number occurs on both sides of a placeholder, then the unit is place at the very front.
Which is ... by the way ... is the distance from the earth to the moon..
Notice that in the notation the numbers must be contiguous with the placeholders. If there is a gap, then the sign for "h" must be inserted into the gap. Exactly as we insert zero's. But one different between our system and the béu system, is, in our system, zero's must be inserted to make the number contiguous with the decimal point (assuming we are using non-scientific notation), in the béu system "h"'s must be inserted to make the number contiguous with any placeholders that are used.
The béu system may at first appear more complicated then the systems currently used. However it is all a matter of familiarity. It is just due to exposure to it for most of our lives that, for example, using hours, minutes and seconds seems so easy. With all equal amount of exposure, the béu system would be even easier.
In our SI system, magnitude words are prefixed to the unit of measurement (for example "kilo" in kilometre). béu also has magnitude words (the placeholders) but they are inserted into the number itself (the béu system is better than the SI system because you get a different magnitude word every time your dynamic range passes 1728). Notationwise, it is a bit similar to the way we use comma's to separate a long number string into groups of three digits.
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... Regions of the world
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| ploni | North America | <= | plona | North Americal Bison | |
| caltini | South America | <= | caltin | Lama | |
| blauni | Europe | <= | blauna | Irish Elk | |
| jaini | Africa | <= | jain | Lion | |
| paibi | Asia | <= | paibian | Panda | |
| wombani | Australia | <= | wombana | Kangaroo | |
| moani | Oceana | <= | mo.a | Moa | |
| piŋgoli | Antarctica | <= | piŋgolo | penguin | |
| kwuhani | The arctic | <= | kwuha | polar bear | |
| hindi | India | ||||
| ?aladai | The Middle East |
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The world is divided into 1110 regions. Nine of them have an association with an animal. [7] includes New Guineau as well, actually anything under the Wallace Line. [7] includes New Zealand.
The border between paibi and blauni is not the Ural Montains. It follows roughly a line from the khyber pass, up the east side of Kazakstan, passing close to Krasnoyarsk and up to Anabar bay on the Arctic Sea.
The extant of kwuhani is shown below. It entails all the green area PLUS the white area inside this green area.
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... The time of day
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beugan is interesting as to the phases of the day and of the year. The day starts at 02:00 and the year starts just after the spring equinox.
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Above, the zenith of the sinusoid represents both high noon and mid-summer ... the nadir, midnight and the shortest day.
The fractions in the above diagram refer to offset as a fraction of one cycle.
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The 24 hour period has six major divisions.
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| 02:00 => 06:00 | pre-dawn .... | jù aús |
| 06:00 => 10:00 | morning | a?aus |
| 10:00 => 14:00 | mid-day | imaus |
| 14:00 => 18:00 | afternoon | uyaus |
| 18:00 => 22:00 | evening | ejaus |
| 22:00 => 02:00 | midnight | ofaus |
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The second column is the nearest equivalents I could think of. jù aús of course means "zero period".
As for the others, well a bit of a dispute there, some think a?aus is a contraction of a?au aús, some think it is a?au with the adverbial marker -s. No matter.
OK ... we have divided the day into 4 hour segments. We can further divide each of these major time periods into six 40 minute intervals. By way of example, lets sub-divide the evening.
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| 18:00 => 18:40 | ejaus jù aús .... | evening, zero period |
| 18:40 => 19:20 | ejaus a?ai.a | evening, the tens |
| 19:20 => 20:00 | ejaus imai.a | evening, the twenties |
| 20:00 => 20:40 | ejaus uyai.a | evening, the thirties |
| 20:40 => 21:20 | ejaus ejai.a | evening, the forties |
| 21:20 => 22:00 | ejaus ofai.a | evening, the fifties |
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Note : 02:00 => 02:40 is called jù aús jù aús. I guess if it was used a lot it would get eroded to jù jù aús but I don't see this period of time being talk about a lot..
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Now aús relates to a period of time. jé (meaning "at" but w.r.t. time) relates to an instant of time. It is logical to think that if we keep dividing up a period of time we would approach to an instant in time. A further division by 6 gives us 6 minutes + 40 seconds. In béu culture this is considered an instant ... like if you arranged to meet somebody, the meeting would only be specified to the nearest 6 minutes + 40 seconds (I guess it is quite a relaxed culture).
By way of example, lets sub-divide "evening, the forties".
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| 20:40:00 => 20:46:40 .... | jé jà jà jù | |
| 20:46:40 => 20:53:20 | jé jà jà ?à | |
| 20:53:20 => 21:00:00 | jé jà jà mà | |
| 21:00:00 => 21:06:40 | jé jà jà yà | |
| 21:06:40 => 21:13:20 | jé jà jà jà | |
| 21:13:20 => 21:20:00 | jé jà jà fà |
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When these special short number forms are used, you always have three of them and they always follow jé
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Every instant that end if jù has an alternative form. For example jé jà jà jù can also be expressed as ejaus jé ejai
And that's about it for the time of day.
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... The day of the year
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The pentagon below represents one year. You start at the gap on the LHS and go around in a clockwise direction. A normal year comprises 10 months and 5 special days. Each month has 36 days.
In the top left corner can be seen the calendar for the second month. The names of five (random) days have been given. I am sure the reader will find it possible to fill in the blanks.
The special days are outwith the months. They are called simply day mercury, day venus, day mars, day jupiter and day saturn.
The five straight lines on the pentagon are called season mercury, season venus, season mars, season jupiter and season saturn.
mercury day ... FRIENDS ... It is usual to get together with old friends around this time and many parties are held. Friends that live some distance away are given special consideration. Often journeys are undertaken to meet up with old acquainances. Also there is a big exchange of letters at this time. The most important happenings of the last year are stated in these letters along with hopes and plans for the coming year.
venus day ... SPORTS ... This festival is all about outdoor competitions and sporting events. It is a little like a cross between the Olympics games and the highland games. People gather at various regional centres to compete and spectate in various team and individual competitions. However care is taken that no regional centre becomes too popular and people are discouraged from competing at centres other than their local one. Also at this festival, a "fire walk" is done, just the same as at the saturn day festival.
mars day ... FAMILY ... Family that live some distance away are given special consideration. Often journeys are undertaken for family visits and ancestors ashboxes are visited if convenient. This is the second most important festival of the year. People often take extra time off work to travel, or to entertain guests. Fireworks are let of for a 2 hour period on the night of mars day. This is one of the few occasions where fireworks are allowed.
jupiter day ... FOOD & DRINK ... This is the most important festival of the year. Whereas the first festival is focused on absent friends and the third festival is focused on absent family, this one is centred on the friends and family you live amongst. And even though eating and drinking are involved in many of the five festivals, by far the most effort is put into preparing food for this one.
saturn day ... MUSIC ... People gather at various regional centres to compete and spectate in various music and poetry competitions. Sky lanterns are usually released on the last day of this festival. On the first two days of the festival, what is called the "fire walk" is performed. This is to promote social solidarity. Each locality comprising up to 400 people build a fire in some open ground. These people are divided into 2 sections. One section to walk and one section to receive walkers. The walkers are further divided into groups. Each group is assigned another fire to visit and they set of in single file. Each of them carries a torch (a brand) ignited from the home fire. Upon arriving at the fire that they have been assigned (involving a walk of, maybe, 5 or 6 miles) they throw their brand into the fire as their hosts sing the "fire song". After that the visitors are offered much drinks and snacks by their hosts. There is considerable competition between the various localities to be the most generous host. The routes that people must go have been chosen previously by a central committee, but the destination is only revealed to the walkers just before they set out. On the second day the same thing happens but the two sections, the walkers and the receivers of the walkers, swap over rolls.
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In order to keep the days and the years in-step an extra day is inserted every 4th year*. This extra day is called leŋkoi [ lén = moon]. It is inserted in the month of the moon when the moon is at its fullest. The normal naming pattern being resumed after this insertion ...
Day of the year .............................. English translation ................................................................................................. Day of the year ................................................ English translation
(non-leap year) ...............................................................................................................................................................(leap year)
................................. 
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While not really "celebrated" this day is observed. Companies that supply their workers with work-attire will distribute new gear on this date. Actually everybody likes to update there wardrobe around this time. Parents usually outfit their kids around this time, and the new clothes are shown off on the morning of leŋkoi. This day is of more interest to females for obvious reasons. Married couples might bestow a small trinket or something upon their partners on leŋkoi.
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In order to keep the days and the years in-step we also delete a day every 128th year*. To work out which day must be deleted you determine the first full moon in the month of the moon. Then you go to the year pentagon (see top of this article). You draw a line from the first full moon day in the month of the moon, parallel to the "season mars" line. The day in month ganymede crossed by this line is deleted.
This day deletion passes without any comment. It is considered a sad event. It repesents the inevitable passing away of all human life.
The entire 128 year period is called a jukokas (deletion cycle). A jukokas has (365.25 x 128) - 1 = 46,751 days
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*Because of the importance of the seasons to agriculture, the tropical year is the basis of most calendars.
mean tropical year = 365.24219
0.00781 is the difference from 365.25
1/0.00781 => 128.0409731114
By the way ... The oldest person ever to live attained 122 year 164 days (as of May 2020) ... so having a 128 year cycle is neat in that the maximun possible lifespan approaches it.
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... The naming cycle
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We have 374 male names and 374 female names. You are bestowed a name depending upon the day you are born on.
After this cycle it repeats, so two guy born 374 days apart will have the same name. Likewise with girls.
One of these cycles is called fakas (fá = "name" : kas = "cycle"/"revolution"). Each fakas has an animal emblem associated with it. There are 125 emblems or toze as they are called. I have listed the 125 toze below ...
| ?eble | iguana | ?usfa | giraffe | ?inte | ant | ?intebian | anteater | melba | gecko | |
| mazna | lemur | mias?a | Steller's sea cow | moa | moa | myata | duck | myolan | swan | |
| mbu?o | badger | mboza | hyena | mpaipe | spider | mpau | dove | yeme | frog | |
| yuatua | walrus | yizgi | black skimmer | yoihu | swordfish | jàin | lion | jambe | pelican | |
| jolomo | mole | jo?ila | cheetah | jwufu | triceratops | jwí | rabbit | felu | jackal/fox | |
| juages | opossum | fanfa | horse | fi.ambo | frill-neck lizard | fyake | springbok | wombana | kangaroo | |
| fleu?en | falcon | flimi | snail | bazlin | wolverine | badwa | bullfinch | biabia | butterfly | |
| baumal?o | gnu/wildebeest | byema | cape buffalo | byoas | cobra | bletus | auroch | blauna | Irish Elk | |
| bwebwe | humming bird | bwo?uma | colossal squid | gaifai | flamengo | guputa | parrot | gialti | glyptodon/doedicurus | |
| goizon | chameleon | glufan | driprotodon(wombat) | gloyun | hornbill | gwúa | python | gwía | gemsbok | |
| demotis | gorilla | dalpan | capybara | dospondo | aardvark | daugomo | porcupine | dwolhe | crocodile/alligator | |
| dwòi | lobster | lea | red panda | launga | jaguar/panther/leopard | lidilika | dragonfly | loitoma | ostrich | |
| celigo | hedgehog | caltin | lama | calai | tiger | cau?en | bat | cwemen | whale | |
| cwitopa | octopus | seloki | lynx | sadu | elephant | salubi | megatherium | sinti | squirrel | |
| slaikan | cormorant/shag | slianiŋki | chimpanzee | sweton | wartho | swoljo | musk oxe | kaimyai | vulture | |
| kendo | goat | kuakua | seahorse | kiampi | seal | kiwon | rhino | kaukwa | grouse | |
| kyohazlo | praying mantis | klekle | cicada/cricket/grasshopper/locust | klozo | hawk | kwuha | polar bear | kwono | raccoon | |
| paibian | panda | palbuma | T-rex | pikau | peacock | pingolo | penguin | pyès | manta ray | |
| pyiaʒi | meerkat/mongoose | plantos | weasel/ermine/stoat/mink | plona | NA bison | tufla | beatle | tiaŋgo | dolphin | |
| tostuya | beautiful armadillo | tauta | shark | two?a | bear | wenye | scorpion | wetalau | zebra | |
| wolos | glyptodon/doedicurus | waulo | wolf | negus | woolly mammoth | nùa | rat/mouse | niala | kingfisher | |
| nozdi | beaver | njele | raven/crow | njogo | seagull | ŋgulo | owl | ŋgohis | crane/stork/heron | |
| ndode | bear cuscus | nceloŋko | yak | ncoin | deer | ŋkele | swift | ŋkaus | baboon | |
| ntiga | smilodon | ntí | crab | nyafi | okapi | nyauti | pangolin | hailai | toucan | |
| habian | bee | huatua | turtle/tortoise | haulau | eagle | ujama | camel | ozgin | puffin |
One cycle of emblems is called a toskas [ toskas < toze kas ]. These two cycles (one within the other) repeat for ever, no beginning and no end.
This method of naming people and reckoning time is called kyugan toze
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Now there is another method of reckoning time. It is called kyugan nòi
There are 125 of these 374 day cycles in a jukokas
The 374 day period is called a "name cycle".
Each of the 125 "name cycles" has a different animal associated with it. These 125 animals are called the toze "totems"
A toskas is a totem cycle. Notice that toskas and jukokas are nearly the same length, there is only one days difference between them.
Now notice that people born on the first day of succeding jukokas will have adjacent names in the "name cycle".
Actually these jukokas are named after the female* name appropriate for their first day.
Everybody has a three word name, which is wholly specified by the time of their birth. For example, a guy might be jono mpaipe su.ane
jono mpaipe su.ane <= jono mpaipe jokukas su.ane but jokukas is invariably dropped.
jono points to one day out of 374. mpaipe points to one "name cycle" out of 125. toskas su.ane points to one "deletion cycle" out of 374.
So jono mpaipe su.ane points to a male, born on a certain day out of a 47,870 year period.
Actually people usually just give their first name. Occasionally they will use their first two names to disambiguate. However all three names are used in documents to specify a persons date of birth.
It is as if béu has two time systems. One used to state when events happen. And one used to state when people start their journey through life. The female name is used to specify the toskas because they are "the life givers".
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bwo?o = squid,
palbau = a theropod : Even tho' we know T-Rex is not the largest theropod these days, the name palbuma has stuck.
bwebwe, klekle, kuakua and biabia seem to have originated in reduplication of a single syllable word. It is not known if this was ever a productive process. These days the paradigm is confined to these four words, all of which represent small sort of cute animals.
krayfish : ono?ai ... WUTUNG ( onoqai )
TO RESOLVE ... pangolin, and aardvark are "anteaters" also. AIL / ULUS / FULGE Hipo = mozezu ?
OTHER ... platipus echidna civet serval hyrax marmoset tamarin guinea pig mara guanaco alpaca
... manatee/sea-cow dugong/sea-cow nautilus cuttlefish gecko newt salamandar turkey partridge quail pheasant condor
The 128 years period can be translated as an age, a generation, a century, an epoch ... something like that.
In béu ... jukokas, "deletion cycle". jukokas is a very iconic word.
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In a 128 year period we have …. (365.25 x 128) - 1 = 46,751 days
Now 46,751 is PRIME ... no good for our purpose.
But we can subtract one and get 46,750. This number is the rectangle (product )of 125 and 374.
So 46,750 will hold a round of 374 names gone round 125 times.
Every toze rules for 374 days.
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The start of time
Year 2000 had 365.242,192,65 days
Every year is shorter than the last by 0.000,000,061,4 days
By adding one day every 4 years we get a 365.25 day year
If we then drop one day every ombatoze we get a 365.242,187,5 day year (actually very close to the actual year length)
Before 2084, the actual year will be bigger than the calendar year – after 2084 the actual year will be smaller than the calendar year
For this reason midnight, 22 Dec 2083 is designated the fulcrum of the whole system. That day will be time zero.
At the moment we are in negative time.
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... Old Time (to delete)
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To ask what time of day it is you say jondi kí nái or kí nái
To ask what day it is you say hoite dinda nái or simply kòi nái
To ask what season it is you say jondi sabata nái or simply sabata nái
To ask what year it is you say jondi toze nái or simply toze nái
To ask which cycle it is you say omba nái
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Actually omba is more precisely called ombatoze'. However in a situation where time is being discussed ... omba by itself will do.
The word for time in general kyugan.
The word tozegan can be translated as "age" or "generation" or "century". Actually it is a period of 128 years.
The word ombakas means epoch or eon (also "calendar", "time reckoning system"). However unlike the English terms ombakas has a specific length (about 400,000 years).
kyù translates as the noun "occasion" as well as the particle "when/while/during". I guess kyù is not a senko as it is not tangible.
Below I have given one value of the ombakas. The total set of possible values can specify a time from around 200,000 years ago to 200,000 year in the future down to the nearest 50 seconds.
omba bene odaudai dimaku ?oli sunaba ajau
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| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| omba | (komo/bene) | odaudai | dimaku | ?oli | sunaba | ajau |
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1) ring/cycle/circle ... Every value of the ombakas starts with omba
2) (negative/positive) ... these can be dropped if it is known from context or from a tense affix, whether we are talking about the past or the future. By the way ... negative corresponds to the past.
3) "the number of the 128 year long cycle". odaudai = 55012 = 78010. As time zero in the béu calendar is 22 Dec 2083, we are talking roughly about a hundred thousand years in the future here.
4) "the particular year of the 128 cycle". dimaku means python and is the 100th year of the 128 year cycle.
5) "the particular sabata of the year" ... there are 5 sabata a (73 day long period) in one year ... ?oli pwè gú gamazu and yika
6) sunaba is the sixteenth day of the 73 day sabata ... [ In chewa, sabata means "week" ... and Yes, I know this is very unlikely to have Bantu provenance ]
7) "the particular fraction of the day that has past" ... ajau => 10012: 24 hours = 100012 : hence ajau = a twelfth of a day or 2 hours. As the day starts at 06:00, ajau corresponds to eight in the morning.
[ By the way ... if you put pluralize ajau you get ajau.a. This word corresponds to the time period between 08:00 and 10:00 ... ifau.a = 10:00 => 12:00 ... ibau.a = 12:00 => ... (well you get the idea)
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Now a ombakas can be put at the periphery of a clause to identify when an action is happening. This is what they are nearly always used for. However ombakas are hardly ever given in full. For example it might be deemed sufficient just to give the time of the day. When time of the day occurs by itself it MUST be preceded by the particle jé.
To show "where" an action takes place, béu places ?é before the "where".
In a similar manner, to show when an action takes place, béu places jé before the "when". For example ...
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| jene-s | d-o-r-e | jé | ajau | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jane-ERG | arrive-2SG-IND-PST | at | 08:00 |
=> Jane arrived at eight in the morning
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Only in the situations above do you get jé introducing a truncated jekas.
At this point I should stress something before moving on. A full jekas defines a point in time (50 sec) apart. A jekas with ajau at its RHS spefifies a point at exactly 08:00. Similarly ajaujai specifies a point at exactly 08:10. And similarly ajaujaija specifies a point at exactly 08:10:50 (that is 50 seconds past ten minutes past eight).
The above represents points in time. As mentioned before, a range of times can be given by pluralizing the point ... that is ajau.a = 08:00 to 10:00 and ajaujai.a = 08:10 to 08:20. (ten minutes is the smallest range that can be specified in this way ... by the way 08:00 to 08:10 = ajaujua)
If a jekas is truncated by deleting the "time if day" then it actually specifies a time range (24 hours). If it is further truncated by deleting the day of the sabata then it actually specifies a time range (73 days). So to say something will be done on Tuesday ... no need for the "on". To say something will be done in January ... no need for the "on". For example ...
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| g-a-r-u | geufa | |
|---|---|---|
| do-1SG-IND-FUT | on the seventh day of the month |
=> I will do it on the seventh
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| tomo-s | d-o-r-i | geufa | ajau | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thomas-ERG | arrived-2SG-IND-PST | on the seventh day of the month | at 08:00 |
=> Thomas arrived on the seventh day of the month at eight in the morning
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| tomo-s | c-o-r-u | ?oli | geufa | ajaujai | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thomas-ERG | leave-2SG-IND-FUT | in the first month | on the seventh day | at ten past eight |
=> Thomas will depart in the first month on the seventh day at ten past eight
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This time system is sufficient for all of human history. Of course to talk about cosmology, or even geology, some sort of extended system is needed.
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Relative time words and their provenance
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So far we have learnt how to give the time in an absolute manner. Time is sometimes also given in a relative manner ...
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A period of time that varies through-out the year is the jondia "dawn. It starts when the sun is first seen above the horizon and continues until it is clear of the horizon. This period will also vary according to position ... if you live in a deep valley jondia will come later than if you stay on the coast or on a plain. jindia is the jondia midpoint. This is a point of time.
The small wheel shows Sundown koikau and Sunrise jondia. koikau is important for spiritual observancies. These obviously vary through-out the year.
jindia is a technical term and not used a lot. It specifies when the middle of the sun clears the horizon at your particular locality. If you live in a valley this time would be of course delayed compared to your neighbours outside the valley. Trees or other man made obstructions are not taken into consideration when calculating this number.
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Here are some examples of the system in use ...
| g-a-r-u | kolze |
|---|---|
| do-1SG-IND-FUT | day |
==> "I will do it during daylight hours"
| gì | tw-a-r-u | jé | ugai |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2SG | meet-1S-IND-FUT | at | 14:00 |
==>"I'll meet you at 2 in the afternoon"
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| garu kolze | I'll do it during the day |
| garu noice | I'll do it at night |
| garu goize | I'll do it in the morning |
.... and so on
| garu jejua | I'll do it between 6 and 8 in the morning |
| garu ajai.a | I'll do it between 8 and 10 in the morning |
.... and so on
| gì twaru jé jù | I'll meet you at 6 o'clock in the morning |
| gì twaru jé ezai | I'll meet you at 10 o'clock at night |
| gì twaru jé ajaujaija | I'll meet you at exactly 08:10:50 (that is 50 seconds past ten minutes past eight). |
.... and so on
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| g-o-r-∅ | dinda-s |
|---|---|
| do-3SG-IND-HAB | "24 hours period"-ADV |
==> "He/she does it daily"
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| gor kolzes | He usually does it during daylight hours |
| gor noices | She usually does it at night |
| gor aibai.as | He usually does it in the early afternoon |
.... and so on
Four of the terms in the LHS wheel have natlang provenance ...
goize (basque) : hapon (cebuano) : wece (bosnian) : noice (portuguese)
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Also the meaning of two terms on the RHS wheel have expanded ...
aibai = noon => high point, zenith
okai = midnight => low point, nadir
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When the 5 relative time words combine with others the relative comes first. For example ... kuzaza jejua = early morning tomorrow
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There are also two undefined periods of time. jin and jon. jon is an order of magnitude greater than jin (but both are not rigorously defined).
jondi = now
jindi = exactly now
"longtime" súa / short-time gìa the latter giving rise to the adverb uzuas "soon"
kí = a time interval of 50 seconds ... I suppose it should be included when talking about daily time but it is invariably dropped. For example 8 o'clock is jé ajau not jé kí ajau.
[Note to self : talk about "the first century" = "century zero" : "the first kilometer" = "kilometer zero"]
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dinda = day (24 hours)
Actually koikas also means 24 hours ... dinda is more technical/formal usage ... koikas is more everyday usuage. Also koikas is used only used with integers. For example ... if you were talking about the length of a year, dinda would be used as there is not an exact number of days in a year.
The béu day begins at sunrise. 6 o'clock in the morning is called jindia.
The period of time it takes the sun to appear is called jondia. This is not precisely defined. However jindia is exactly 6 o'clock in the morning.
The time of day is counted from jindia. 24 hours is considered one unit. 8 o'clock in the morning would be called ajai (usually just ajai, but ajai yanfa or ajai yanfa dinda might also be heard).
The particle jé is always precedes points in time. To say that an action happened for a certain length of time ... it is usual just to have the "length of time" at the end of the clause. For example ...
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jene (liga) wore odai yanfa (dinda) = Jane thought for 5 minutes ... liga and dinda would normally be dropped ... but they don't sound strange if included.
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| 6 o'clock in the morning | jindia |
| 8 o'clock in the morning | ajai |
| 10 o'clock in the morning | aufai |
| midday | aibai |
| 2 o'clock in the afternoon | ugai |
| 4 o'clock in the afternoon | idai |
| 6 o'clock in the evening | alai |
| 8 o'clock in the evening | oicai |
| 10 o'clock at night | ezai |
| midnight | okai |
| 2 o'clock in the morning | yapai |
| 4 o'clock in the morning | watai |
Just for example, let us now consider the time between 4 and 6 in the afternoon.
16:00 would be idai : 16:10 would be idaijau : 16:20 would be idaifau .... all the way up to .... 17:50 which would be idaitau
Now all these names have in common the element idai, hence the period from 4 o'clock to 6 o'clock is called idai.a (the plural of idai). This is exactly the same as us calling the period from 1960 -> 1969, "the sixties".
The period from 6 to 8 in the morning is called jùa
The period .. 3 to 6 in the morning is called diamau The period .. 6 to 9 in the morning is called diagoi The period .. 9 to midday is called XXXmau The period .. midday to 3 afternoon is called XXXgoi The period .. 3 afternoon to 6 at night is called cuamau The period .. 6 in evening to 9 is called cuagoi The period .. 9 in evening to midnight is called YYYmau The period .. midnight to 3 in morning is called YYYgoi
XXX = zenith YYY = nadir
For example "ten past six in the morning" would be jù ajau, "twenty past six" would be jù afau and so on. The jù should never be dropped.
In English we divide the day up into hours, minutes and seconds. In béu they only have the yanfa. The yanfa equals to 5 seconds.
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... The Town Clock
Every town has a clocktower and the clocktower has 4 faces, which are aligned with the cardinal directions. The street pattern is also so aligned : that is the four biggest streets radiate out from the clock in the cardinal directions.
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.................................... The East Face .......................................... The North Face ................................................ The West Face .................................................... The South Face
The above clockfaces show the time just before mid-day.
... And this clockface shows the start of the day (2 o'clock in the morning by our reckoning)
Both hands move anti-clockwise. The black hand sweeps out one revolution every 24 hours and the colour hand every 2 hours.
The black and coloured hands do not move continuously but in steps. The black hand moves 3.75 degrees every 15 minutes, and the secondary arm moves 7.5 degrees every 2.5 minutes.
When the colour hand over takes the black hand it stops 3.75 minutes at one side of the main hand, and then moves directly (2 steps) to the other side of the main hand and stops there for 3.75 minutes. After that it does a step and waits 2.5 minutes, etc. etc. ... until it encounters the black hand again.
The clocktower is surmounted by a green conic roof (actually not really conic ... the roof slope decreases as you get nearer the bottom). Lighting from under the roof could be provided for each face. Either that or the faces could be illuminated from within at night. The faces are not exactly vertical but the top slightly overhangs the bottom.
There is never any numbering on the face.
The clock also emits sounds. Every 2 of our hours the clock makes a deep "boing" which reverberates for some time. Also from 6 in the morning to 6 at night, the clock emits a "boing" every 30 of our minutes. The first "boing" has no accompaniment. However the second "boing" is followed (well actually when the "boing" is only .67 % dissipated) by a "sharper" sound that dies down a lot quicker. Lets call this the "teen" sound. The third "boing" has 2 "teen"s 0.72 seconds apart. The fourth has 3 "teen"s. The fifth one is back to the single "boing" and so it continues through-out the daylight hours.
Below is more detail about the hands and the markings on the clock face. Notice that the colour hand can come in two varieties. The "diamond" variety and the "eye-shape variety. Of course you only get one variety on any one clock.
... Some Musings
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beugan should arrange the beumi in such a way that people of "compassion" and "taste" always rise to the top of the organisation and and also by having a method that allows for continuous revision of every aspect of itself, béu should produce truths and ways that are very worthy of regard.
"béu" specifies certain "best practices" for many many aspects of life. These "best practices" encompass many varied aspects of life.
For example the manner in which the 5 yearly festivals should be celebrated, what screw shapes and sizes should be used, how a man should treat his wife and a woman her husband, the periods of fasting and dietary restrictions that each individual should undertake.
These are just some examples of these "best practices". Actually each of these "best practices" are given a level of importance. There are 3 of these levels ... "recommended", "highly recommended" and "an absolute must".
These "best practices" are set out in various books. Theses books are held to be "canonical" or holy. However these writings are not set in stone, and there are mechanisms where by these books are updated and also new books can be added to the "special books".
Some people consider these "special books" to constitute a religion that has no god. However other people follow these "best practices" as just "cool things to do" and fit them in to their lives under another over-reaching belief system, such as Christianity or Islam (in much the same way that the early Buddhist adherent were free either to forget the old hindu gods or to continue to venerate them).
béu place great importance upon education and lifelong learning. There is a core body of work that all béumai must read. Also there are a great many “recommended works” that they are encouraged to study.
The most important “daily ritual” is 15 minutes given over to the study of these books..
béumai are expected to show generosity, hospitality, and to constantly pursue of social justice and reform of poor institutions. They are discouraged from the excessive pursuit of luxury and status.
Rather … they believe that in order to be happy, you need …
1) A community of good friends
2) To be engaged in work that gives satisfaction (as part of this self-empoyment is look favourably on)
3) To spend a part of each day in contemplation (reading the holy books is believed engenders this contemplation) ... beumai believe that the highest calling in life is to expand the body of knowledge that humanity possesses ( peugəŋgau) ... to accomplish addition or amendment to one of the treasure of books that are considered "cannonical" is to gain the greatest regard possible from fellow beumai.
For the harmonious functioning of society as a whole, everybody should follow the rule …
1) What you do not wish for yourself, do not do to others
beumi tend to be quite focused on their occupation. In fact, to a large extent, they consider that there position in society is defined by their professional lives. This focus produces a motivated and consciencious labour force. beimi believe that "if a job is worth doing* it is worth doing right". They take immense satisfation in completing a task to the highest standards.
Also there is a mania for "optimization", to find the exact most efficient way to do a certain task. Stemming from this ... many people are interested in calculous.
*But who decides what job to do, what job is worth doing ?
Probably the most detailed part of béu is beuba (the language of béu).
First some new words concerning béu ...
beuki = a person that follows béu and takes part in the community of béu
beumai = a person that follows béu but follows in a private manner.*
beumi = all the people that follow béu
beugan = béumi plus all the paraphernalia of béu (i.e. buildings, flags, clothes, etc. etc.)
Note ... I will not use the term beuba from now on ... I shall simply say béu. This is sufficient since it is obvious that I am talking about the language. In a similar way, in a book about language you do not continuously come across the term "the English language" ... but rather "English".
The foundations of béu
Some questions and answers ...
Question ... What is béu ?
Answer ... béu is a way of life.
Question ... Where does béu come from ?
Answer ... Well béu was wilfully constructed here, down on earth, by humans. But actually béu is designed to evolve over time, so maybe it is better to say that béu is "being constructed", rather than "was constructed".
Question ... Why was béu constructed ?
Answer ... béu was constructed to fill a gap in the life of a man. Or perhaps it would be better to say ... béu was constructed to fill a gap in the lives of men.
Question ... What was the starting point in this construction ?
Answer ... The starting point for constructing béu was to ask two questions. Which were ....
What is a human being ?
What is the point of life ?
After some thought the first question was answered on three different levels …
A) ... A collection of genes.
B) ... A collection of urges ... to eat, to drink, to have sex, etc etc etc
C) ... A network of friends and family … loved-ones.
And after some further thought the answer to the second question was answered …
D) … To get enough food.*
* WHAT ??? ... To get enough food ... is that it ??
it is not a complete answer ... but it is about 80% or 90% of the answer)
E) ... Other bits and pieces ... but really, they pale into insignificance compared to D).
beugan attemps to set up a network of beumi. This network is in no way meant to supplant (C) ... rather to extend and enhance (C).
Interaction with other people re-inforces our feeling of being a complete person. In fact with out contact with other poplethe soul fades, days merge into meaningless days, there is no purpose to anything. Now any human contact at all guards against this fading of the soul. However to get a positive affect, to get a flourishing of the soul, it is necessary to have contact with people that have your best interests at heart.
béu is an attempt to build a "framework" for life. A framework that is compatible with the 4 answers given above. But why a framework, you might ask. Well it seems to be a psychological need. Because people are happier when they are told what they can and can not do, what goals are worth striving for and which are worthless. And also as part of this "framework" ... well people like "ritual", they like purposeful action without too much thought, they like the thought that they are part of something bigger than themselves, they like to feel meaning in their lives, they like to feel that they are part of a tradition that stretches back eons and eons. ( OK ... béu can not fulfil the last item ... or at least, not at the moment)
In short béu is a gigantic collection of meme's ... aesthetically pleasing and slotting together harmoniously with each other.
..
Three basic concepts ... angwa, honda and aska
At the centre of this body of work defining the "best practices" there are 3 important concepts.
angwa can best be translated as "harmony"
When used in relation to motion it can be translated as "grace" When used in relation to design it can be translated as "elegance" When used in relation to text it can be translated as "poetry"
angwai is an adjective meaning "graceful", "elegant" or "poetic"
angwa is considered getting the right balance between honda and aska
honda can best be translated as "order"
aska can best be translated as "chaos"
..
Index
- Introduction to Béu
- Béu : Chapter 1 : The Sounds
- Béu : Chapter 2 : The Noun
- Béu : Chapter 3 : The Verb
- Béu : Chapter 4 : Adjective
- Béu : Chapter 5 : Questions
- Béu : Chapter 6 : Derivations
- Béu : Chapter 7 : Way of Life 1
- Béu : Chapter 8 : Way of life 2
- Béu : Chapter 9 : Word Building
- Béu : Chapter 10 : Gerund Phrase
- Béu : Discarded Stuff
- A statistical explanation for the counter-factual/past-tense conflation in conditional sentences
