Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.
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| The Coral Castle in Coral Gables Florida. Source: See link below. |
Maybe you've seen it. It is a tourist attraction called the Coral Castle in Coral Gables Florida. One man, a small man of about 135 pounds, carved from the coral beneath his feet and moved into place, using only a tripod composed of three logs about the size of telephone poles and pulleys, created amazing structures built of solid coral blocks weighing several tons each.
Below is what the web site says.
We invite you to tour our sculpture garden in stone, built by one man, Edward Leedskalnin. From 1923 to 1951, Ed single-handedly and secretly carved over 1,100 tons of coral rock, and his unknown process has created one of the world's most mysterious accomplishments. Open every day, the Coral Castle Museum welcomes visitors from around the world to explore this enchanting South Florida destination.
Here is the link. Coral Castle Museum
Maybe you don't believe that. Maybe you believe he used heavy equipment or had help from aliens or something. But if what the web site says is true, Mr. Leedskalnin accomplished something many people to this day would think is impossible. He knew how to do something that others still do not understand.
I kept starting today's post and then stopping. I tried three times but after a few paragraphs stopped. Then last night around 3 AM I awoke thinking about the Coral Castle, which I was reminded of while watching William Shatner's TV show not long before going to bed. Was that what I was waiting for? Was that the missing piece? Was it just coincidence or was it my subconscious mind or something bigger in the universe putting things together? It is easy to doubt any or all of that.
There are a lot of questions. How does the mind work. How did the universe begin? Big Bang or God? In any case, it is well beyond my imagination and understanding. What is known is miniscule despite man's ignorant arrogance. Like one grain of sand in the universe.
We do that, you know. Our world shrinks to the size our mind permits. We dismiss or explain away what we don't understand or can't grasp.
Now I want to bring this home. I've seen people who think they know a lot, and I've seen doubters at work. And there is time to doubt, but you can doubt the wrong thing. There are times when doubting can be a big mistake. If done at the wrong time, it can actually limit what you will accomplish.
Perhaps instead of doubting that one man could cut huge blocks of coral and lift them and move them into place to create something like the Coral Castle, it would be more productive to think about what could be learned. We can look for mystical explanations, as some like to do, or we can be awakened to new and real possibilities within ourselves. There are times when we can learn from others. Our lack of understanding can be a signal to awaken rather than doubting and explaining away what we don't understand.
I've seen detectorists doubt what other detectorists have found. They don't think it is possible to find so much. Maybe they don't think the conditions were right. And the conditions probably were not right where they were, but they didn't see everything. They' might not know how it was done, and because of their limited experiences, doubt that it was.
Indeed, a person's concept of what is possible is limited by what he has personally done, seen or can understand. But there is always more.
I've seen doubters. and certainly doubt things at times myself. And there is times when you should doubt, but is better to be open abnd expand your ideas of what you think is possible.
Afterall, what do we really understand? Scientists understand almost nothing when it comes down to the big questions, but they like to think they are the smartest beings that exist, that there is nothing bigger than what they can see or comprehend, and they will never be held accountable to a higher standard than their own.
Professing to be wise, they became fools (Romans 1:22). A fool does not delight in understanding, But only in revealing his own mind (Proverbs 18:2).
I already said I was going to bring this home and started to a couple times, so what does all this have to do with metal detecting?
Once upon a time there was a detectorist who brought a lot of gold finds to his metal detecting club every month - many more than anybody else in that particular club, and it wasn't long before the other club members started to accuse him of cheating somehow. They didn't believe so much could be found by one person every month. Instead of benefitting from what they were seeing and getting the idea that it might be possible to find a lot, they instead discounted what they were seeing. I noticed that after a few monthly meetings they quit looking at the many finds this one detectorist brought in. It seemed that they preferred to deny the possibility rather than consider that there was something they could learn. People can be like that. They can be their own biggest obstacle.
Sometimes it might seem like there isn't much out there, but there is. It might not be as easy as you would hope. Conditions might not be good where you've been hunting. But there are always other places - if you want it enough.
It is easy enough to say the beaches haven't been good or there is nothing out there. You might be able to bust out of that if you are willing to investigate new places, explore new strategies or generally work harder and smarter.
I can understand why the less successful club members couldn't believe how much the more successful member was finding. Their experience was different. They hadn't done it themselves and didn't know how to, but they were wrong to believe that it wasn't possible just because they hadn't done it. They would have been better off to give some thought to how it might actually be possible. If you don't think something is possible, you probably won't accomplish it. You won't put the effort in to make it happen.
You might remember my formula for metal detecting success. One of the biggest factors is the time and effort you put into it. Consistent success requires a lot of work, and each success builds or adds to your knowledge and skill level as well as your success level.
To see my formula for metal detecting success, use the following link. Treasure Beaches Report: Pt. 2. (2020 and Beyond). : 5/4/20 Report - New Revised Formula For Metal Detecting Success. Gruesome Bit of Treasure Coast History. (tbr2020.blogspot.com).
Don't expect the treasure you seek to come to you. Your metal detector isn't a magnet that draws treasure just because you go out and wave it around like a magic wand.
The really big days are rare. You likely won't have them unless you are out there grinding - a lot. But if and when they happen, those days can expand your understanding of what is possible.
I know I have limited myself many times in different ways, and sometimes I regret not hitting it harder, especially those times when I know I left a lot behind.
I've told about some of my big days before and some of them could have been much bigger. I remember a time when there was a target or two or three in every square foot. I just couldn't dig it all fast enough. And I regret only working four hours each of two days. I could have worked for 12 or more hours each day. There are people who have done that. I probably could have multiplied my finds by three or more times if I had done that. I came back the second day, and it was still producing at the same rate. But it all disappeared after the second day. While I was out there on the second day, I saw the clouds roll in and the weather change as I hunted. I looked up at the sky and thought that might be the end coming. The next day (the third) when I returned, it was all gone. I'm sure I left much more behind than I found. It was my fault.
I told once about two people who worked every low tide for months. There are people who work through the night. I've known some of those.
At one beach, many nights I would see flashes of a flashlight blink on and off in the distance way up the beach. I knew it was another detectorist working but didn't know who it was. For a while I thought it might be one person, but eventually found out it was another when I crossed his path one time as he was coming off the beach before daylight. We both laughed and said hi as we passed in the night. He is someone I still know and occasionally talk to these many years later. By the way, those kinds of people generally won't tell you a lot about what they are doing, but they are generally working longer and harder than most - and with good results.
Perhaps I've gone on too long.
As we come to the end of one year and get ready to start another, I want you to know that you are not likely to accomplish anything you think is not possible, so be open to the new and wonderful possibilities of the New Year.
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CNN Wire listed some of what they considered a list of the "top" discoveries of 2023. Here are two of them.
When 22 woven sandals discovered by Spanish miners in 1857 were first carbon dated in the 1970s, they were thought to be about 5,000 years old. But new analysis from the Autonomous University of Barcelona and Alcalá University in Spain has found that estimation to be shy of about 1,000 years: In September, researchers announced that the footwear, made of plant fibers, are, in fact, the oldest known European shoes.
Preserved thanks to dry conditions in the cave in southern Spain, along with an assortment of fiber baskets and other goods, the sandals demonstrate “the ability of prehistoric communities to master this type of craftsmanship,” according to an author of the study...
I've said before that I am very skeptical of some archaeological dating techniques, including carbon dating. Here is an example where carbon dating first produced a date of 5000 years, which was later changed to 1000 years of less. That is a big difference.
Here is another discovery from the same article.
Move over, (fictional) “Heart of the Ocean,” because there’s a new Titanic necklace ready for the spotlight. A piece of jewelry featuring the tooth of a Megalodon, a prehistoric shark, was identified in the ocean liner’s wreckage by the deep-water investigation company Magellan, as part of its undertaking an ambitious project to produce a full-size scan of the ship, which has been at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, some 13,000 feet deep, since the infamous disaster in 1912.
Richard Parkinson, CEO of Magellan, called the necklace “astonishing, beautiful and breathtaking.”
“What is not widely understood is that the Titanic is in two parts and there’s a three-square-mile debris field between the bow and the stern,” Parkinson told British television network ITV in May. “The team mapped the field in such detail that we could pick out those details.”
Cool find. If you look at the picture in which that necklace appeared, you'll notice a lot of other interesting items, many of which appear to be natural history rather than the kind of thing that was the focus of so much of the movie.
Here is the link for the rest of that article.
The 15 best art, design and archaeology discoveries of 2023 (fox17online.com)
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Happy New Year,
Treasureguide@comcast.net