Bird Droppings July 14, 2010
Walking out among the Cotton Woods

I walked outside earlier as I do so many mornings just to ponder the day ahead and by chance looked over to where our famous dog moose is buried. A mockingbird was sitting on the Grancy Grey beard tree by Moose’s grave singing away. The sky was bright and wisps of clouds were visible remnants of the storms passing through yesterday. Many days ago I would spend my mornings alone sitting observing in the wee hours sometimes wrapped in a blanket for the cold listening and watching as time went by. There were mornings when falling stars by the hundreds would pass by and I would feel as if I was the focus of attention watching all in space aim towards me. I would sit and hours later write poetry and verses logging down emotions events and moments that came to me while I was entranced outside.

“The essence of knowledge is, having it, to apply it; not having it, to confess your ignorance.” Confucius

One day recently I was told I had a great vocabulary. I came home and asked my wife, “Do I have a great vocabulary?” I was really wanting an answer to boost my ego and she said sort of sarcastically, “it really depends on who you are talking too.” At first I was hurt but then she said not that many people have seen or heard what you have in your life and sharing that expands there vocabulary as well and as I thought for example to my father who had traveled the world over many times, read constantly, discussed business with world industrial leaders, and was considered in his lifetime a great speaker perhaps she was right, and I felt better.

“Knowledge, a rude unprofitable mass, the mere materials with which wisdom builds, till smoothed and squared and fitted to its place, does but encumber whom it seems to enrich. Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much; wisdom is humble that he knows no more.” William Cowper

In days gone by and even today I will pick up encyclopedia and read volumes much like a book jokingly tonight’s light reading is H. I do intersperse these days with more current and upbeat reads. Although I still am an avid reader of Smithsonian and National Geographic although they do have a lot of pictures.

“Be curious always! For knowledge will not acquire you: you must acquire it.” Sadie Black

We have all grown up with the statement about curiosity killed the cat but a lack there of also kept the world at a standstill and nothing will happen. It is that innate curiosity that drives us in our search and one of the things I am concerned with that is being stripped away in our current trends in education.

“Today knowledge has power. It controls access to opportunity and advancement.” Peter F. Drucker

It has been some time since Drucker’s name came up at home. I recall many the conversations with my father when he would borrow quotes and references from Drucker in his thoughts and ideas. A great guru of business Drucker has written many books helping people manage business.

“I would have the studies elective. Scholarship is to be created not by compulsion, but by awakening a pure interest in knowledge. The wise instructor accomplishes this by opening to his pupils precisely the attractions the study has for himself. The marking is a system for schools, not for the college; for boys, not for men; and it is an ungracious work to put on a professor.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

I have come to enjoy Emerson as I use his sayings often. He was a rather grizzly looking old goat of a man but as I read this I realized several times recently this is how I described what a school should be like. Literally a teacher should be a door man or door person simply opening the door at appropriate times allowing information to go in or out as needed. As that student becomes more and more adept the doorman is needed less and less till soon only a receptionist is needed to assist in organizing thoughts or offering advice.

“Knowledge, without common sense, says Lee, is folly; without method, it is waste; without kindness, it is fanaticism; without religion, it is death. But with common sense, it is wisdom with method, it is power; with clarity, it is beneficence; with religion, it is virtue, and life, and peace.” Austin Farrar

Last semester I sat and spoke at length over lunch and walking back to class with a good friend who had just returned from nearly a year in Afghanistan. We were talking of cultural differences that to us are ridiculous and yet to people there a part of life. In my reading I am currently going through an article about of the sans “Bushman” of the Kalahari in South Africa and several other indigenous peoples who have been stripped of homes and culture for the sake of mankind. That sounds so familiar her in the Americas. It seems diamonds have been found in the Kalahari and the sans who have lived there for thousands of years hunting and gathering must leave and go learn to farm and to be civilized. Perception was left out of many of the verses today for a hunter in the Kalahari may not know of Quantum physics but he or she does know where to find and how to find water and juicy grubs for dinner if the antelope have escaped during the hunt. Knowledge is of when and where you are now.

“Gugama, the creator, made us. That was a long time ago – so long ago that I can’t know when it happened. That is the past, but our future comes from the lives of our children, our future is rooted in the hunt, and in the fruits which grow in this place. When we hunt, we are dancing. And when the rain comes it fills us with joy. This is our place, and here everything gives us life. “Mogetse Kaboikanyo

Mogetse Kaboikanyop was a Kgalagadi man who lived alongside the Gana and Gwi Bushmen in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. In February 2002, he was forcibly relocated to a camp outside the reserve. He died just four months later. He was probably in his fifties; his friends said his heart stopped beating. After years of struggling to remain on his land, Mogetse was buried in the desolate relocation camp, far from his ancestors’ graves. In about 1909 or so Geronimo was told finally he could not be allowed to return to the mountains of New Mexico to die. He must remain at Fort Sill Oklahoma where he died shortly thereafter. I have been to the grave site of Geronimo many times in my travels to Lawton Oklahoma driving out past military vehicles and such to a quiet spot along the river where no visible modern sights are around only rustling cotton wood trees and the flow of water over the stones. There is a rolling landscape and meadow of grass that go up from a small parking area since not many people come to this corner of Fort Sill.
Many times as I sat alone staring across the meadow listening to the stream and feeling a breeze brush lightly it seemed as if time rearranged and it was so easy to slip back to days when people buried here had names and not simply numbered markers. Knowledge is an elusive ethereal entity flitting about as a monarch travels many thousands of miles between hills in Mexico and Georgia. Knowledge is elusive in how it conveys power to some and solace to others. Knowledge is walking along the stream by a grave from a time long gone and knowing we can change mankind. We can make a difference it is the Geronimo’s and Mogetse Kaboikanyo’s who are the real teachers. It may be one step, one small tiny speck at a time but one day others will be able to stand among the cotton woods in Oklahoma or beneath a bush in the Kalahari and know tomorrow is a far better day that mankind has learned. One day maybe not today knowledge will truly be. But till then please keep all in harm’s way in your thoughts and on your mind and try to offer a hand to anyone slipping as they cross the stream.
namaste
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