Bird Droppings December 27, 2024
Telling our grandchildren the stories

“I wanted to give something of my past to my grandson. So, I took him into the woods to a quiet spot. Seated at my feet he listened as I told him of the powers that were given to each creature. He moved not a muscle as I explained how the woods had always provided us with food, homes, comfort, and religion. He was awed when I related to him how the wolf became our guardian, and when I told him that I would sing the sacred wolf song over him, he was overjoyed. In my song, I appealed to the wolf to come and preside over us while I would perform the wolf ceremony so that the bondage between my grandson and the wolf would be lifelong. In my voice was the hope that clings to every heartbeat. In my words were the powers I inherited from my forefathers. In my cupped hands lay a spruce seed– the link to creation. In my eyes, sparkled love, and the song floated on the sun’s rays from tree to tree. When I had ended, it was as if the whole world listened with us to hear the wolf’s reply. We waited a long time, but none came. Again, I sang humbly but as invitingly as I could until my throat ached and my voice gave out. All of a sudden, I realized why no wolves had heard my sacred song. There were none left! My heart filled with tears. I could no longer give my grandson faith in the past, our past.” Chief Dan George, Salish

I look forward to the day I can tell my grandchildren tales told to me by my father and his father. Recently my oldest son and I were standing in the dark listening to a chorus of coyotes call only hundreds of yards away through the dense pines of the nearby forest. Perhaps they had caught a deer or found a carcass left by some wayward hunter and were celebrating their find. The echoes and calls bounced off the trees and literally filled the air, unlike anything I have heard this side of the Mississippi River. I am sure when I retell this story, it will be embellished a bit, but it was awesome just the same to hear personally. As I am sitting here this morning reading this short passage from Chief Dan George again, I am saddened by the ending. We are on the verge as we continue to focus on the now of losing our past. We, the dominant society, have ravaged the landscape, stripped away what we need, technologically impaired our children, and left little possibility that our grandchildren will be able to hear and see what we have even in our lifetime.

Many will scoff at my feeble words. However, as a teacher, I see the children of today struggle with imagination and creativity. I see today’s children so entangled in gadgetry that they have little need anymore for a stick horse or stuffed sock animal. Few children are building forts and tree houses where they can have virtual worlds to play with. Some of us will recall what it is like to play Robin Hood in a patch of forest. Some will remember days prior to TV and video. Some of us can remember having to ask an operator to connect us to our phone call party. Some will remember dialing with a rotary dial phone, other than comedians in skits. I am as much a victim using my smartphone to communicate photos and images instantly and get directions or weather reports instantly. However, it caught me by surprise when a clerk at one of my favorite stores asked me what I did with my herb garden during the winter. It set me back from the fast-paced world into one of growing plants and herbs. One of digging in the dirt and growing what we need instead of asking just the price. So, what will I tell my grandchildren one day when they are sitting on my knee? I might start with a passage I used at a wedding.

“You have noticed that everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the Power of the World always works in circles, and everything tries to be round…. The Sky is round, and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball, and so are all the stars. The wind, in its greatest power, whirls. Birds make their nest in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours… Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing and always come back again to where they were. The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves.” Black Elk, Oglala Sioux Holy Man, 1863-1950

It is easy to wonder, sitting in my hotel room typing away on my laptop of days ahead, what lessons and stories I will share. I will walk through the fields and forest and point out leaves and twigs; I will pick up an insect and tell of what it is and why; I will teach them how a great horned owl calls in the evening and the difference between a spring peeper and a grey tree frog, I will show them to avoid poison oak and ivy and look for wild strawberries, but I will also show them how to create images on a computer and how to use words wisely and powerfully and to share with others.

“Everything was possessed of personality, only differing from us in form. Knowledge was inherent in all things. The world was a library, and its books were the stones, leaves, grass, brooks, and birds and animals that shared, like us, the storms and blessings of earth. We learned to do what only the student of nature learns, and that was to feel beauty. We never railed at the storms, the furious winds, and the biting frosts and snows. To do so intensified human futility, so whatever came, we adjusted ourselves, by more effort and energy, if necessary, but without complaint.” Chief Luther Standing Bear

So, in the midst of a holiday season, I am wondering what lesson I should first impart. There is a lesson that, sadly, many forget as they go into the world. It has been many years since I first saw these words. It is that lesson of example. Dr. Nolte, nearly fifty years ago, gave us a poem of sorts, “Children learn what they live.” that critical lesson is one example of providing a life that is a lesson rather than a disaster. So this morning, as we start a new week, please keep all in harm’s way on your mind and in your heart’s namaste.

My family and friends, I do not say this lightly,
Mitakuye Oyasin
(We are all related)
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