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TBD on Ning


Even before the huge Haitian earthquake, I was sadly surprised to discover just how reluctant some people are to show any amount of compassion to anyone outside their own family. It is as though they are in a life or death struggle in a time and area of scarcity. Most are not. This phenomenon is compounded by the level of mistrust people feel and subsequent failure for these people to find common ground and work toward common goals. For the former, it’s “everybody for themselves.” For the latter, it’s “us against them.” Both these approaches decrease our quality of life, our nation’s potential, resilience and our hearts joy.

It does require a rather extraordinary strong constitution to listen day after day to the news without falling into a paranoid despair. This is not to say that joy is absent or that good news stories aren’t happening every day, but these stories are rarely widely reported.

I have been feeling quite deeply that we are isolated from the natural source of our strength and sustenance. In much the same way, we are isolated, indeed self-isolated, from other people for reasons we either are told, choose to believe, or make up. Both of these are choices we have made.

I have come to the conclusion that there is no point in trying to talk to someone who believes that the earth is only something to drive upon. A person with no personal connection to the land, its inhabitants, and its "culture" is not mature enough to be entrusted with its preservation or protection, yet this description applies to many of us—and more so, all the time. Such a person is separated from truth and ignorant of natural law. No wonder they have a tendency to believe anything anyone tells them. They are not grounded, not centered, and not mature. In a word, not wise.

Yes, that is a value judgment, but how can it be otherwise? To fail to recognize that we are, like it or not, "in this together" is to be all too willing to take radical or reactionary steps without taking the ramifications of those steps into account. To believe we can move our family, our group, our region, our nation, anywhere without affecting everyone and everything else is ludicrous. We are all connected. Always have been. Always will be. This is the first thing we should be taught and the last thing that crosses our mind at night.

The "instructions" have been held and preserved by indigenous cultures forever, yet we continually forget them and need to be reminded. Sometimes adults remind kids, but more often kids are reminding adults. The number of years you have lived is only a measure of the opportunity you have had to learn these lessons, not a guarantee that you have learned them. There are young fools and there are old fools. There are uneducated fools and educated fools. The object of the game is to not be a fool.

In order to achieve that goal, you generally have to follow "the instructions." Many peoples have written the instructions in their own ways to be relevant to their specific audiences or cultures. We can recognize some contemporary expressions of them. "Don't bite the hand that feeds you." "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." "Call your mom...and thank her." "There, but for the grace of God, go I." We put these things in our own way. We keep remembering and forgetting these concepts throughout our lives. Those who are wise, remember them far more than they forget them. They are very simple. The list that follows may or may not be more or less complete. It depends on who is doing the reading.

We are all connected.

We are all related.

Love your mother.

All life is sacred.

All life has a place in the circle.

Be grateful and show gratitude.

Respect your elders.

Remember that you do not know everything.

Leave room for the Great Mystery.

Take care of each other.

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Tags: culture, life, philosophy

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Comment by caseyjo on March 4, 2010 at 7:41pm
Birds have wings for a reason....Clipped wings do not a bird make.
Comment by caseyjo on March 4, 2010 at 7:31pm
I only have to look at my own neighborhood to understand what you are talking about Vernon. There are very few of us here who live like brothers & sisters and the judging knows no bounds. We used to do native circle here until everyone started complaining about the way it should be done.

Now when The big Pow Wows come to town the neighbors try to group up...If so & so is going on Sat. I'm going on Sunday sort of thing.
My thinking says if ceremony doesn't work because of ideals...Lets have a BaR-B Q...
Comment by Tina on March 4, 2010 at 5:50am
Well stated IMO, Mari
Comment by CWO3ROBBIE on March 3, 2010 at 9:41pm
Vernon, There is a lot here to think about. So that's what I'm going to do for the time being.
Comment by Maricel Evasco on March 3, 2010 at 2:37pm
It does require a rather extraordinary strong constitution to listen day after day to the news without falling into a paranoid despair. This is not to say that joy is absent or that good news stories aren’t happening every day, but these stories are rarely widely reported.

It isn't so much paranoid despair as it is a growing desensitization to the suffering of others because if overexposure to media sensationalism.

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