CLUMSY OAF

The author said,

in her people’s “wisdom,”

that no native language has

a cognate for “human” as

separate from other beings.”

The NPR interviewer sighed and

became excited by the unity

of all things and the serenity

implied in this foreign paradigm.

I’ve read enough of

literature to know we in the

West speak about the conflict

of man versus nature, so I wonder

how that plays out in the Native

American spirit?

Unity. What is that? Kum by yah?

To honor the soul of the animal

you killed for food, be in love

with the three sisters, be kindred

with the trees, to find fellowship

with the twisted rocks and clear

waters who are your home.

How smooth and easy

in contrast to the white man’s

distinct ability to become a

dissonant trumpet, out of tune,

crippled, always able to find

a way to get it wrong.

Like all the noise we make as we

carry “diversity” like a spear

because we need our wars and

search for a reason to kill that guy

who isn’t us, to bulldoze the

land we are required to tame.

It is who we are.

We see beauty, but cannot walk in it

with our unentangled souls. Yes,

we can take its picture, even paint it

to hang on our sterile walls, but only if

the colors match the furniture.

Interview:

Xelena González and Adriana Garcia

Samantha Balaban

Author's Note

I may have already posted this one? Can't find it, cant remember

Reviews

[Lorry]

The conflict of man versus nature is 100% man's problem and the only thing we have to do with nature, other than posting ludicrous pictures of us enjoying it online to fake we are one, is that man is part of nature and like a petulant child we get angry with what we can't control and come over all presidential and have a sissy fit any time someone tells us we have to protect the planet and stop being so selfish. (I wouldn't hold my breath on that happening, especially since our rocket Muskateer has plans on sodding off to colonise Mars, but only for those that can afford it)
As you quite rightly said Vol, our problem is with other man, not like us, because ... erm, why is it again?
I feel like I've been left in the out-takes from the movie idiocracy, because thinking be hard and who could remember all them lines! 😀

[RomaJ]

Vol, I felt a deep connection to my own heritage, reading this. I'm from an Island, my ancestors probably viewed humans in that way, one with nature, part of the larger web. They would weep at what the island has become. We are so far from the old ways. But our ancestors lived in simpler times, if they were hungry, they go fishing or hunting, wash their clothing in the river. Granted, those were during times of peace. So many of our native species are extinct or killed off by invasive species. The landscapes has completely changed, not only from modern times, but ww2 and so many typhoons etc that has battered the island. Our world has completely changed from the ancient times. Alot don't even know how to speak our native tongue anymore. Now, the world is entirely different, and we have to move with the times, navigating the modern world while remembering what was lost. It makes me reflect the contrast between the old ways and the modern world.
Roma

[Vol]

Roma
You have made me curious... what Island? I have read a lot about a number of American Indian Tribes, and am always abashed at the West's destruction of smaller cultures... it is not dissimilar from the extinction of important species. All have value! I could and have written many times that Great Britain might have been the most bloodthirsty people ever to live, always out to explore and conquer... unlike the Chinese who have killed more of their own than even the Russians... Maybe it has something to do with being in the Northern Hemisphere?

[RomaJ]

I will send you a private message. I don't want to post it publicly haha

[Lara]

The thought reminds me of a blues song, vol: something about "we don't get out of here alive" ...
As if something must necessarily break inorder to be free atlast. Perhaps (again) the conceit of ourselves.?

[Vol]

Lara,
Thanks for taking the time.... Blues is the only music I listen to... well bluesy Rock... Probably because it is the genre of our time, as evidenced by keeping it's lack of "air time." Nobody wants to admit that it is the chorus of our time and a precursor to the dirge we are headed toward if we don't wake up and change our ways.
Vol