Bird Droppings July 27, 2025

Should we even consider ignorance, or I could say lack of experience, a part of the journey?

Over the past few days, I have been looking at or pondering the idea of experiences and how many people do not have experiences, for example, in comparison to my own.  I have led a full life, and I do consider myself well-read. As I walk through the aisles at Kroger or Publix, I see multitudes of people who some may have experienced more than me but most, I would say, have not. I hate to call someone ignorant because they never raised sheep or went to the Everglades Wonder Gardens in South Florida, or saw a Florida panther on the boardwalk at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, or met and shook hands and received a check from Dwayne Allman.

It hit me when my grandson could not see an egret on the reservoir. We were driving across the dam and could not slow down. There was a var behind us, and he did not know what an egret was. Had it been a green heron or great blue heron, he would have been able to see it, I am sure. My brilliant grandson, I would not call ignorant, but inexperienced, we did look it up in our Audubon book as soon as we could.

“If I want to justify my existence and continue to be obsessed with the notion that I’ve got to do something for humanity, well, teaching ought to quell that obsession — and if I can ever get around to an intelligent view of matters, intelligent criticism of contemporary values ought to be useful to the world. This gets back again to ……The best way to help mankind is through the perfection of yourself.” Joseph Campbell

It was so many years ago, at first, I thought my goal was to do something for mankind, as in some great event or task. As I sit and wonder this morning, I find in Campbell’s thought so often it is searching for and bettering ourselves that we truly help mankind. Earlier, I wrote to a friend about trying to understand and reduce ignorance. I seriously think it is funny how, in politics and during political campaigns, ignorance seems to be rampant.

“Unintelligent people always look for a scapegoat.” Ernest Bevin

“If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.” Derek Bok

Working with children becomes interesting as each day you see bits and pieces of ignorance fall away, only to be there again in the morning, as parents and all those outside of schoolwork on rebuilding ignorance during the night. I even coined the term sixteen sixteen-hour syndrome for this effect.   

“Ignorance is never out of style. It was in fashion yesterday, it is the rage today, and it will set the pace tomorrow.” Frank Dane

“The highest form of ignorance is when you reject something you don’t know anything about.” Wayne Dyer

I live in a place that borders constantly on ignorance and wants so terribly to cross over to the side of wisdom. It seems those in power always want to keep those ignorant folks in the dark, hence, for example, the Dark Ages back in the day. During that period, most could not even read or write, and those who could were in power.

“Being ignorant is not so much a shame as being unwilling to learn.” Benjamin Franklin

“Naiveté in grown-ups is often charming, but when coupled with vanity, it is indistinguishable from stupidity.” Eric Hoffer

Looking at politics, Hoffer may be very right. It does seem that in every election, we watch politicians play with words against rhetoric that sounds good to the group that is being addressed. I recall when the legislation to prevent the sale of assault weapons was up for renewal, and how ironic that amid antiterrorism, it would fall by the wayside.

“The opposite of love is not hate; the opposite of love is ignorance.” Brian Hwang

“When I was fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have him around. When I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years.” Mark Twain

In a search for knowledge and understanding, so many roads can be walked. We can search in books, in schools, in our families, and life in general, but it must entail a search. To assume you are there is to cease the journey, and to cease is to assume you have reached the destination. We are born with a starting point, point A, and when we die, we have reached point B. It is that which connects A and B that is crucial.

“Life is about the journey, not the destination,” Steven Tyler, Aerosmith.

Funny thing is, as I am sitting here in my writing spot, I was talking with my son and Aerosmith’s greatest hits was playing in the background, coincidence, maybe, who knows, but the journey continues.

“Myth is the secret opening through which the inexhaustible energies of the cosmos pour into human manifestation…” Joseph Campbell, Hero with a Thousand Faces

I listen to the words and read the gibberish of the politicians and wonder if a hundred years ago or so would these same men and women would be pushing for an Indian Territory and reservations. Today, instead, it is illegal immigration and Gay marriage that strike nerves in so many people. I was reading a National Geographic account of the salvaging of a slave ship. In 1698, humans were bought and sold for trinkets. Eleven thirteen-inch bars of iron would buy a black man, and forty pounds of glass beads a black woman. On this ship, the historians believe they were from the Ibo tribe in Western Africa. These people believed no one was greater than any other. It was their life philosophy that made them susceptible to being taken as slaves. This tribe was a peaceful people; they were human beings bought and sold as things. Not until a war was fought were black men legally human beings in the United States, and it was not until the trial, twenty years later, of Chief Standing Bear of the Ponca tribe that Indians received the legal status of human beings. This was not all that long ago.

“Only to the white man was nature a wilderness, and only to him was the land ‘infested’ with ‘wild’ animals and ‘savage’ people. To us, it was tame, Earth was bountiful, and we were surrounded with the blessings of the Great Mystery.” Luther Standing Bear

This morning, I went out driving around as I do, taking pictures and watching the sunrise. A bit later, I sat for thirty minutes in the stillness of morning. Mourning doves were cooing around me, and various other birds were just waking up. A woodpecker started on the old black walnut trunk near our house, and I felt at ease. So many thoughts passed through my mind, sitting listening in the barely lit morning.  I sit writing thinking about what I have to do today, may peace be with you all my friends, and please keep all in harm’s way on your mind and your heart, and always give thanks, namaste.  

My family and friends, I do not say this lightly,

Mitakuye Oyasin

(We are all related)

docbird

I am sharing some good words from a friend’s Facebook page, as I read how true this simple thought is.  Elder’s Meditation of the Day: “Life is like a path…and we all have to walk the path… As we walk…we’ll find experiences like little scraps of paper in front of us along the way. We must pick up those pieces of scrap paper and put them in our pocket… Then, one day, we will have enough scraps of paper to put together and see what they say… Read the information and take it to heart.” Uncle Frank Davis (quoting his mother), PAWNEE