I
was sitting in my favorite chair: a recliner that allows me to arm-reach
everything I might need -- end table with small drawer; lamp; electrical
outlet; TV remote; etc. I was thinking
about an earlier chat I had about the importance of bringing back, or more
importantly, hanging onto our indigenous wisdom.
This
internal dialogue was interrupted by my son’s text saying that he needed a ride
home. It was Sunday morning.
A
bit of history: Friday evening after work I had to swing by his school on my
way home because he needed $10 to buy a ticket to attend a dance Saturday
night. I pulled up to his school, handed him a ten dollar bill from my car
window. He vanishes back into his school. Several minutes later he and his two
buddies walk out and get into my car. Those three hung out after school while
waiting for me – more importantly -- my $10. My son’s two friends remembered
that they needed to bring $10 to school before Friday.
My
son…he forgot!
After
several trips over the weekend, I realized that I am my son’s personalized Uber. The main
difference is that I give him money after riding him places.
Back
to my chair and thoughts about indigenous knowledge. As I am typing this my two
sons have their faces in their smart phones and my lovely wife, although it is Sunday,
is on her laptop finishing her work from the past week.
Information
is not knowledge. We are bombarded with information from our TVs, world wide
web, and all kinds of other technologies. We are not obtaining knowledge from
these tools, what we are mostly doing is obtaining information. Mainly,
unusable information.
We
are extremely lucky to be living in a time with so much information at our
fingertips. We have many great tools in our lives: Cars, electric, walmarts,
etc. Our Native American ancestors, our great leaders, had to get information
and “things” in a very differ way. The older way is better.
Which
would you prefer, living in a world with clean water, air and food with very
little technology? Or in our current world where everything we need is arm’s
length, but the air we breathe, the water we drink and the food we consume –
are poisoned?
Our
ancestors’ bodies and minds were clean - not toxic like ours. They were vaccinated
by Mother Nature. The strongest survived, led and taught. There teachings came
from purity of thought, body and community.
Our
Native Ancestors lived in a world that was pure, clean, and full of knowledge.
We
live in a world that alters the body and mind with contagions.
