The Story That Never Ends
Lately I’ve noticed more and more stories relating to groups who are victimized by terror and oppression and who respond by mounting grassroots campaigns to end atrocities and injustice. These stories of overcoming all manner of heinousness are jewels in a dung heap it would seem.
The idea of peaceful communities being overrun by terrorizing hordes is, in my opinion, completely unbelievable and unacceptable for this time of hope. It seems that my belief in peaceful communities in a peaceful world is the only real pipe dream here. I’ve always been one for ending genocide. It will not happen unless there is a massive change in our minds and our hearts today.
Today’s NY Times article reminds us of the disheartening but unique position that indigenous peoples continue to hold in this matter. Indigenous peoples continue to suffer when outlaws and government officials decide to duke it out. They find a place inhabited by people who are living in the kind of harmony with the environment that can only be dreamed of, or if you’d like, they find a Garden of Eden, and then spill as much blood as is possibible (my misspelling).
Finding peace is a misnomer. I was challenged by a Vietnam veteran, pro-George Bush, coffeshop denizen who blithely suggested, there’s always been wars, but peace doesn’t exist.
It’s true. Harmony and balance don’t have much of a chance to exist either if the coffee drinker is right. One thing that our indigenous philosophies remind us is that such abstract notions as peace and harmony and balance are not real, per se. They are nouns representing a little more than a picture. The true vitality of the word PEACE is realized when we think of it not as a noun but as a VERB.
Balance is an effort not by one but by the whole community. We see Peace and Harmony and Balance as the end-product of a community coming together in a ceremonial way and jointly working to create a moment when all time stops. It is the wisdom of our philosophies that we should undergo these transformations into the good and balanced world on a yearly basis. It’s the most important act of our year.
The NY Times article reminds us that the Garden of Eden still exists, albeit perilously, in the furthest reaches of this huge physical world. It also reminds us that WE are it’s greatest threat.
Our expressed desire for a world of peace and balance is perfectly contrasted by our actions. We place ourselves at the apex of life instead of as a single player among many. We give our power to the leaders and not to the earth. We give our notions of peace over to greed and our desire for balance to excess. We listen to anyone with something to sell and look past those who believe in the Earth.
Our future Earth needs new humans, or better yet, old-way humans. We need to know how to believe in the world again. We need to remember that the Center of the World is a place not a city or institution or word–a place to be protected and sheltered from the “outside” world.
Julian Lang
See a great audio slide show here.
Hi Julian,
Perhaps you remember me from times past at ITEPP? Humboldt State?
I was going through some books the other day and saw that you had signed my copy of Lucy Thompson’s To the American Indian with Peter Palmquist and your introduction to that book.
Anyway, I am now writing a chapter on California Indians for Greenwood Press and I needed to ask you a question. Fortunately, I googled your name and found your website.
My place of work has a strict email policy. So, please send me an email at my email address in this memo and I will check it tonight when I get home. Not knowing whether this message is public or not, I hesitate to give you phone numbers. I”ll do that via email when I hear from you.
Mtvo!
What a good publish. I actually enjoy reading these varieties or posts. I can?t wait to find out what other people have to say.