It's a beautiful October 31st here in my valley. This is the weekend of our Bounding Bush Ceremony which is sort of a Cherokee Memorial Day. Chickamauga Peoples from all over the country will begin arriving here today. Even with the high gas prices, those who are dedicated to honoring the Sacred Ceremonies make the effort and pay the price to gather here.
The Bounding Bush Ceremony is one of my favorite of the Seven. It is a very healing ceremony, especially if you have recently lost a loved one. Each person invites the spirit of a loved one to be here. A special Fire is built by an arbor and one by one we each enter the arbor after offering our loved one a plate of his special foods. And the spirit of the one who has passed meets with us in the arbor. At that time we can say all the things we didn't get a chance to say before parting. Often the spirit of our ancestors will give us advice or warning. At the very least we leave the arbor with a knowing that they are not gone - they are with us if we will only take the time to connect with them.
On Sunday morning we have the Race Of The Dead where we ceremonially walk the spirits of our loved ones back toward the West. Every year a sign is given so that we know they indeed were with us. Several times it has been the Hawk who flew ahead of us while we were walking them westward. When we had gone as far as we could go the hawk peeled off and glided silently westward. One year thousands of Dragonflies surrounded us and carressed us with their wings.
As Autumn turns into Winter, we contemplate our own winter ahead. Knowing our loved ones are here with us makes it easier to let go. Death is not the end - only a change of scenery. Love never dies.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Monday, October 27, 2008
The Return Of Racism
For 14 years I wrote a weekly newspaper for The Hill and Holler Review. The following is a reprint of a column I wrote a year or two ago, but it is relevent today.
The Return Of Racism
Acts of racism have been much in the news lately. Crosses have been burned, nooses hung in trees and swastikas carved into doors to instill fear into minority Peoples.
One might have thought those dark days were behind us, but it seems they have only been lying in wait like the monster who lives in the closet.
Also this week, Dog the Bounty Hunter made news because of a private (he thought) phone call he made to his son in which he used the N word (and others) to convey his disapproval of his son's current girlfriend. Since his private opinions go against today's "group think" philosophies, he has pretty much flushed his television series down the toilet.
What is happening here?
Native Peoples valued and still value individualism. Everyone is given respect, or at least allowed to live, even though they might think and act in different ways. As long as one didn't violate clan laws and taboos, he was considered an important member of the group.
With these rights come responsibility. What is best for all is usually the underlying thought of indigenous Peoples.
Europeans have a different concept of "Individualism." The core belief that man has dominion over everything has allowed him to flourish no matter the cost to others as well as Mother Earth.
While tribal societies operate on a clan system and consensus thinking, white society allows the few to govern the many. This has allowed the destruction of whole tribes of man and much of Mother Earth in the name of greed. Today, most of the wealth is concentrated in a small segment of white society.
Yet when the whites first came here, they found just the opposite. Chiefs lived in the same kind of homes that the rest of the People lived in. In the event of hard times, food and other resources were shared by all. Everyone had a voice in the decision making.
But European greed couldn't allow that kind of thinking to continue.
The belief that one must "conform" to "popular ideology" in thought, word and deed is crucial to the success of today's society. The philosophy of indoctrination, not education has helped lead us to this time in history.
Have you ever wondered why so many of our children go through school and can't read past the third grade level, or write a decent paragraph, or count change? But they all know that smoking causes cancer, abortion is wrong and Muslims are "evil"......
This is indoctrination - a far cry from the reading, writing and arithmetic that used to be taught in public schools.
And now we are witnessing the results of that forced thinking. Maybe mankind should be more evolved, but we aren't. Whenever you forcibly mix people of different cultures together and try to pretend that this is the "Great Melting Pot," all cultures are devalued. Only those at the top benefit.
Now, as times get hard again and the fear of not having enough grows, so to will the ugliness and violence which has it's roots deep in that fear.
And I'm afraid that no amount of 'forced thinking" is going to stop it this time.
"Collective fear stimulates herd instinct, and tends to produce ferocity toward those who are not regarded as members of the herd."
----Bertrand Russell
The Return Of Racism
Acts of racism have been much in the news lately. Crosses have been burned, nooses hung in trees and swastikas carved into doors to instill fear into minority Peoples.
One might have thought those dark days were behind us, but it seems they have only been lying in wait like the monster who lives in the closet.
Also this week, Dog the Bounty Hunter made news because of a private (he thought) phone call he made to his son in which he used the N word (and others) to convey his disapproval of his son's current girlfriend. Since his private opinions go against today's "group think" philosophies, he has pretty much flushed his television series down the toilet.
What is happening here?
Native Peoples valued and still value individualism. Everyone is given respect, or at least allowed to live, even though they might think and act in different ways. As long as one didn't violate clan laws and taboos, he was considered an important member of the group.
With these rights come responsibility. What is best for all is usually the underlying thought of indigenous Peoples.
Europeans have a different concept of "Individualism." The core belief that man has dominion over everything has allowed him to flourish no matter the cost to others as well as Mother Earth.
While tribal societies operate on a clan system and consensus thinking, white society allows the few to govern the many. This has allowed the destruction of whole tribes of man and much of Mother Earth in the name of greed. Today, most of the wealth is concentrated in a small segment of white society.
Yet when the whites first came here, they found just the opposite. Chiefs lived in the same kind of homes that the rest of the People lived in. In the event of hard times, food and other resources were shared by all. Everyone had a voice in the decision making.
But European greed couldn't allow that kind of thinking to continue.
The belief that one must "conform" to "popular ideology" in thought, word and deed is crucial to the success of today's society. The philosophy of indoctrination, not education has helped lead us to this time in history.
Have you ever wondered why so many of our children go through school and can't read past the third grade level, or write a decent paragraph, or count change? But they all know that smoking causes cancer, abortion is wrong and Muslims are "evil"......
This is indoctrination - a far cry from the reading, writing and arithmetic that used to be taught in public schools.
And now we are witnessing the results of that forced thinking. Maybe mankind should be more evolved, but we aren't. Whenever you forcibly mix people of different cultures together and try to pretend that this is the "Great Melting Pot," all cultures are devalued. Only those at the top benefit.
Now, as times get hard again and the fear of not having enough grows, so to will the ugliness and violence which has it's roots deep in that fear.
And I'm afraid that no amount of 'forced thinking" is going to stop it this time.
"Collective fear stimulates herd instinct, and tends to produce ferocity toward those who are not regarded as members of the herd."
----Bertrand Russell
Autumn in the Ozarks
It's cold here in my valley. It has frosted 3 times already. The wild cherry trees have lost their beautiful red leaves while the walnuts are bright yellow in the sun. When their nuts hit my metal roof, it sounds like an explosion.
I finally got my book, The Rag Picker's Christmas" released. While I am pleased with how good it came out, I am disappointed at the price my publisher put on it. It is inconceivable to me that a woman who lives in a 2 room cabin below the poverty line and has written a book about an incident that occurred during the Great Depression would see it priced so high that no one will be able to buy it!
Would any of you who have had similar experiences with publishers, please let me know how you handled it?
I finally got my book, The Rag Picker's Christmas" released. While I am pleased with how good it came out, I am disappointed at the price my publisher put on it. It is inconceivable to me that a woman who lives in a 2 room cabin below the poverty line and has written a book about an incident that occurred during the Great Depression would see it priced so high that no one will be able to buy it!
Would any of you who have had similar experiences with publishers, please let me know how you handled it?
Labels:
Author Experiences,
Autumn,
Cabin,
Children's Book Writer,
Ozarks
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