For those of you keeping track, you will have noted I have been behind on my blog since summer.  I dislike not writing in a timely manner and think I have stumbled onto a case of writer’s block.  So I decided to get current and then work my way back.  As I checked the date I paused when I realized today was Friday the Thirteenth.  I do not consider myself to be superstitious.  I have owned black cats, walked under numerous ladders, and have opened too many umbrellas inside to even count.  The thirteenth day falls on a Friday at least once and year and can happen as many as three times annually.  But why the superstition?  One suggested origin occurred on this very day — a Friday the thirteenth in October — only instead of 2017 the year was 1307.  This is the day the Knights Templar essentially fell.  The order was founded in 1119 and remained overtly active until about 1312.  A Catholic military order, its role was for the protection of Christian pilgrims.  At its peak, it consisted of fifteen to twenty thousand members; ten percent of whom were knights.  They also went under the Order of Solomon’s Temple and the Order of Christ.  Their motto:  Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy Name give glory.  They wore distinctive white mantles with red crosses and were the most skilled fighting units of the Crusades.  In addition, the order became among the wealthiest and most powerful.  Non-combatant members managed a large economic structure throughout Christendom.  The Templars could pass freely through all borders, were not required to pay any taxes, and were exempt from all authority except for that of the Pope.  I was taught in college they developed innovative forms of financial techniques that eventually became the foundation for the world’s banking systems.  The knights also built fortifications across Europe and the Holy Land.  King Philip IV was deeply in debt to the order and, it is said, took advantage of the situation to gain control over them.  On this day at dawn in 1307 he had many of the order’s members in France not only arrested, but tortured into making false confessions, and then burned at the stake.  I found this quote quite profound from the Irish journalist Marguerite Gardiner, the Countess of Blessington, who said:  “Superstition is only the fear of belief, while religion is the confidence.”  So why did I hesitate to resume writing in “real-time” today?  Was my fear rooted in the belief that I wasn’t doing things in their perceived order — a superstition of sorts?  Perhaps.  I will say my writer’s block has been resolved and taking this silly picture for today’s post gave me another topic to write about; stay tuned … In the meantime, I would much rather place my confidence in my faith.