I’m almost ashamed to be writing this.

Although I’ve been familiar with the great names of our ancient western heritage—names like Homer, Virgil, Plato, Tacitus, Sophocles and many, many others—for pretty much my entire life, I didn’t begin earnestly reading and studying them until after I’d already passed my half-century mark. And me, the degreed historian too! I can recall playing King Agamemnon in a Junior High School class play, though I don’t remember much more than that. And everyone’s read The Iliad, right?

Oh boy—what I’ve been missing…

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One of our writing assignments for June 2015 at the Golden Pen Writers Guild was to write about…purple. So here’s what I came up with:

Murex brandaris.

You’ve likely never heard of this sea snail, but it held a treasure worth more than gold in ancient times. The seacoasts of the ancient city of Tyre emitted a constant stench from millions of these crushed and rotting shells for centuries. One tiny gland from 12,000 of the animals produced a mere 1.4 grams of this treasure—Tyrian Purple dye.

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On a lovely June afternoon during a quick trip to Flagstaff, Arizona, I was meandering along on a self-guided walking tour I’d found online. It led through the historic downtown and eventually onto the campus of Northern Arizona University.

It’s been a long time since I went away to college or have spent any time on a college campus for that matter—I’d forgotten how good it feels. I strolled down the main  pedestrian-only thoroughfare checking out the historic buildings, new ones under construction, and the Student Union, finally ending up at the campus bookstore.

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