Bird Droppings September 14, 2025
Just an observation, or am I seeing something totally different than you 

“I am that I am”. I read that somewhere many years ago, a simple definition of someone. As I look at its simplicity, are we not all who we are? I grew up in a middle-class family first in Pennsylvania and now in Georgia. In the old days, I would take to the woods often for many days wandering trails through the north Georgia Mountains. I see many of the places I would go today; I see them regularly in Rabun County. It was in my younger days, and I learned about animals and plants. My affinity for nature grew. I no longer look for the great picture but for the interconnections of the plants and animals. I see things I never knew existed in my younger days. On a recent morning, I walked out, and a possum greeted me as I went to the car. On any other day, no big deal, but on that day with power out at our house from a blown transformer, it was an interesting start to the morning. Within minutes, a large buck locked eyes with me, and so the day went. Daily, I have interactions that I tend to refer to as synchronistic with nature.

“I do not write from mythology when I reflect upon Native American spirituality in this book. In my own opinion, mythology leads to superstition, and superstition has proved fatal to many millions down through time. It is ironic, then, that Dominant Society accuses Native practices of being based on myth.” Ed McGaa, Eagle Man

My wanderings are the expanse of several days of traveling, being alone while my wife is on vacation, thinking, and observing mankind. Just a few nights ago, my son and I heard outside a choir of coyotes just a few yards away, deep in the pines. It was literally an opera of coyotes’ howls and yells. While only a few minutes, the sounds were an eerie reminder that even in a civilized world, nature was only a few feet away in its wildest form. I was walking Sunday morning and being away from my quiet spot near my home in Between Georgia, in a small town in middle Georgia, sitting on a porch of an old mill house, the quiet was overpowering, along with the gentle breeze and sunshine. Around me, birds would occasionally fly into and out of the trees, but most of the time without a sound. I was essentially alone, sitting and listening while everyone else was inside. Only a few hours earlier, I had a wonderful experience watching from my own house as the sun came up and started this book, Nature’s Way.

Ed McGaa is a Lakota Sioux and an attorney by education. He chooses his words wisely and does not simply offer a book to fill a spot on a shelf. He points to observations as a basis for our spiritual views rather than heresy or simply taking the word of another. This past weekend, as we drove home from a quick trip to see my son and his wife and our grandbabies, we noticed nearly fifty red-tailed hawks sitting on the wires watching as we drove by. If you have ever seen a hawk hunting, observation is key. Every detail is seen as they look for a food item crawling or scurrying along the ground.

“Clearly, we are meant to think, analyze, and deliberate. And yet humans seem to have some sort of fear (or is it plain ignorance?) of exercising the simple freedom to think. Why are we so prone to let others do our thinking for us – to lead astray and control us?” Ed McGaa, Eagle Man

Less than a year ago, we were through one of the most biased and perhaps most sheep-led-to-slaughter election campaigns I have ever experienced in my life. The negative ads were the vast majority of all from either side. Issues were simply something that would be dealt with after the election, and even then, that was questionable. Here in Atlanta, several of the mega churches are going through serious upheavals with pastors who, after years of preaching and blasting various human characteristics and issues, are coming out themselves and in turn being who they preached against for twenty years and built empires against. One of the themes I have seen in politics and religion so blatantly in the past year is the “letting of others do our thinking for us”. A few years back, I received a copy of a book in the mail from a friend in New York after he published it. I had known the title for months prior, but seeing it and beginning my initial reading, the title hit me. “Hustlers and the idiot swarm”, how appropriate is that to our society today?

Opening up Reverend Manny’s book and turning to the very first page, there is a quote and thought that permeates our society if even unknowingly.

“For the grossly impudent lie always leaves traces behind it, even after it has been nailed down, a fact which is known to all experts’ liars in this world and to all who conspire together in the art of lying.” Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, vol. I, Ch. X

It was within a day or two of first setting foot in Washington that a newly elected Congressman who ran on a ticket of repealing the newly legislated Health Care bill was upset that his government health care insurance did not start immediately, and he had to wait twenty-eight days, and he made a scene in his first official meeting. During the course of the past year, lies about the health care bill made headlines more so than points that were significantly important to many families. I grew up in a family with a severely disabled brother who would never have been insurable under most standard insurance due to preexisting conditions. Even more significant is that my son was still in nursing school and over twenty-five, but was covered under the new health care law on my insurance. If not for that, I’m not sure where we would be after his accident in May of 2014, with over three hundred fifty thousand in medical bills that were covered.

I really did not want to get into the idea of politics since reality is not an issue there, sadly. I started my thoughts a few days ago, thinking about how we find our own center and understanding of the world around us. I have been saddened as I read former students’ interpretations of events and understandings of their own belief systems.

“The Sioux believe that lies, deceit, greed, and harm to innocent others will never be erased, and neither will good deeds of generosity and caring. Dominant society, on the other hand, leans towards the “forgiveness” theory, which claims that bad deeds can be purged.” Ed McGaa, Eagle Man, Nature’s Way

As I started getting into this idea of each of us formulating and ratifying our own understanding of all that is about us, it became clear that this will be more than a quick note. I walked out of the house earlier and had R. Carlos Nakai on my earphones, and it was rather loud. The CD is one of Nakai, who is a seven-note cedar flute master playing with a symphony of his various melodies, and it was almost haunting as the visage of a clear sky and quiet surroundings, the trees. I had to stop listening to the music and see this quiet, still image before me. The two interplayed as I got ready to leave the house. To close this quick, Birddropping and getting on with the day, I remind everyone to please keep all in harm’s way on their minds and in their hearts and always give thanks, namaste.

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

Mitakuye Oyasin

(We are all related)

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