VI 22nd March 1996
The only advantage of referring to a field with a geodesic num- ber is that it is the same as used by the council, but it has a soulless quality, especially in daily use. Describing it as “next to the bridge” or “by Henryʼs house” is another way, but is cumbersome and so we decided to refer to them alphabetically, from A to Z - following the geodesic numbers - and at- taching to each letter a womanʼs name of ladies we knew: start- ing with sister-in-law Anne and finishing with Zosia the senior Aunt. We covered all letters successfully, except two: letter “O” which we named after Oprah, a delightful black American interviewer, and “X” after Xanthippe Socratesʼ wife, who showed a sterner side of womanhood. Both our team and neighbours got used to appellations quickly, and developed a liking for them, so that we found it very convenient. In Poland womenʼs names are beautiful, often borrowed from other traditions or cultures, not based exclusively on saintsʼ names, often seductive in their diminutives, so that the names we attached to our fields, some quite rare or special, were readily recognized. And letter “D” referring to a 16 hectare field of rich soil, named after Dilpreet, the daughter of an old friend was readily taken on. Even the VAT ladies in Płock took to them to: Chid, Fiona, Hisako, Nadia, Penny, Queenie or Vanessa and others.
The natural and deep relationship which a farmer has with every field was enhanced by the use of these names, which eventually were ingrained in our minds for their features and by the work which they entailed. ʻNadiaʼ with the dip in the centre and tendency to drought at the top is good ʻIIIAʼ quality; ʻGretaʼ on the river bank is in danger of flooding in spring and needs draining; ʻJaclineʼ with a ploughed-in by error access road and a filled deep lime pit, badly needs clearing the stones; ʻEveʼ the largest field of nearly 26 hectares suffers from a sunken bog-pond, which can overflow making soft ground around its banks, where one sinks, and has soils which vary considerably from IVB to IIIA; whilst ʻDilpreetʼ is remembered for a high pH of over 7, never needing any lime. So every pretty name holds its own fascinating characteristics, just as those in the true world of sweet romance.
In favour of our Dating Continuum can at least be said that it has been in use for a long time, otherwise it is quite illogical and its ʻcommon-era terminologyʼ is inconvenient showing the dates in reverse order for BC and AD. It involves reduction of year dates to describe progress of time in one period and increase, in the other; thus we describe the life of Alexander as being from 368 to 330 while that of Hadrian from 76 to 138, not to mention Augustus who lived from minus 60 to 0 and from 0 to plus 14 in the common-era system. The logical method to record dates is to follow the time: in one direction, from the past to the future. Such a system, named as ERAN calendar is described below.
Eran assumes that 10,000 BC corresponds to 15 billion years from the Big Bang which broadly agrees with current estimates (it could of course be 14 billion as some scientists indicate, without making difference to the system). By using the name Billenium for every billion years, we would now be shortly entering into 12000 year of the 16th billenium, as the date of this chapter shows above. 10,000 BC is a convenient date for this assumption, by corresponding to the beginning of a period which covers the recorded history of man. In making the dating continuous from the beginning of time with the present it obviates the illogicality of BC and AD appellation. The date of birth of Christ sheds some significance by becoming a date in the march of time - 10000th in 16th billenium - by doing this it yields respect to other religious traditions, a more elegant attitude in our ʻone worldʼ of today.
The periods of 10,000 years which may be called Decimiums become significant time units, the first in our current billenium is now finished and the second starting at the birth of Christ is denoted by a “1” added as a prefix to our current date; thus, this year in Eran is the year 11996 not 1996. The time becomes continuous (from Big Bang) and therefore, Homer at 800 BC is dated in Eran calendar as year 9200 (10000 - 800BC) followed by Norman Conquest in 11066 or discovery of America as 11492. This system retains the convenience of the existing date references while recognizing the continuity of time denied in our current system. We are about to enter the 3rd millennium of the 2nd decimium in the shortly arriving year 2000 which can be identified as year 12000, the beginning of 13th millennium of Eran. It will be a joy for a historian to know (by simple subtraction) that the Battle of Issus in 9667 (10000 - 333) was 471 years from the death of Hadrian in 10138 and for a schoolboy or girl, to know that the creation of Adam, in the Bible was in 6240 which to this day in 11996 is 5756 years ago (as in the Jewish calendar) or 4391 years from Adam to the Hegira; it would also accord better with the logic of Napoleonʼs address before the battle of the Nile, cautioning his troops that: “40 centuries are looking at you today.”
10,000 BC itself is the beginning of the Neolithic period in the history of the Homo sapiens, a period when he first developed self-awareness and moral views in his society and begins to build his institutions of family, religion and state. Although some awareness existed earlier, as envisioned by the cave art of the Cro-Magnon, going back to the end of the previous billenium it is accepted that a moral view was not established until man commenced to record his thoughts in writing, which began in Sumeria in the 6th millennium, in 5000 of Eran time. The first days of our civilization dawned there, on the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates, where the archaeologists discovered not less than twenty seven “firsts” achieved and recorded by these people. Amongst these were first schools, first historian, first case of tax reduction, first legal precedent, first love song, first literary debate, first library catalogue and first farmerʼs almanac, for which we remain grateful to the Sumerians. It was the period of the great awakening, followed by Semitic writings in the 8th millennium, in 7000, and followed by the glorious 10th millennium from Homer to Augustus. Starting with these early dates the Western Culture was built, from Ur, Babylon and Nineveh, moving through Greece, Rome, Christianity, Middle Ages, Renaissance, Revolution, Nationalism and the Treaty of Rome, a history of mankind from 5th to 12th millennium; more comfortable when seen in a single sweep: 2001 years from the Ides of March in 9956 to the Treaty of Rome in 11957.
| 1st ERAN | 0 - 999 | 10th BC | 9999 - 9000 | |
| 2nd | 1000 - 1999 | 9th | 8999 - 8000 | |
| 3rd | 2000 - 2999 | 8th | 7999 - 7000 | |
| 4th | 3000 - 3000 | 7th | 6999 - 6000 | |
| 5th | 4000 - 4999 | 6th | 5999 - 5000 | |
| 6th | 5000 - 5999 | 5th | 4999 - 4000 | |
| 7th | 6000 - 6999 | 4th | 3999 - 3000 | |
| 8th | 7000 - 7999 | 3rd | 2999 - 2000 | |
| 9th | 8000 - 8999 | 2nd | 1999 - 1000 | |
| 10th | 9000 - 9999 | 1st | 999 - 0 | |
| 11th | 10000 - 10999 | 1st AD | 0 - 999 | |
| 12th | 11000 - 11999 | 2nd | 1000 - 1999 | |
| 13th | 12000 - 12999 | 3rd | 2000 - 2999 |
