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Monday, October 5, 2015

IS THERE HOPE?


Damyanti wrote a fascinating post on her DAILY WRITE:
https://damyantiwrites.wordpress.com/



It was on Man's fragmented identities and dueling world-views

that inevitably ended in blood being spilled and innocent lives being mangled.

In such an inter-connected world as ours has become, she asked is there any hope for humanity?

On the world stage, I believe there is none.  

Our technology has grown beyond our maturity to use it wisely.

On the individual level, there is some if we strive to be the change we wish to see as Gandhi urged.


But hope for the world?


People rightly denounce Hitler, but Stalin murdered millions more and ruled for a much longer time. 

Putin has risen to power on the heaped bodies of his rivals.


Hope for the world?


Is there any?  As Sci Fi and Scary wrote on Damyanti's blog --

there is hope for this planet since it has endured ice ages and comets/asteroids ending most life on it.  


 For Man?  Not so much.


In the septic tank of politics, the biggest chunks always seem to rise to the top.  Yet, think on what Gandhi wrote:


“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won.

There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it--always.”


Still in the meantime, millions have perished in terrible ways.  

And the headlines, written in innocent blood, tell us it is still going on.

Do you know the largest concentration camp still operating in the world today? 

The Rosebud Reservation --

which includes the Wounded Knee massacre site. 


No barbed wire is needed for it is surrounded by miles of harsh desert. 

I remember my half-Lakota mother stopping at a gas station and seeing the sign: "No Dogs or Indians Allowed."

Mother cried silent tears, for she had wanted to shield me from the bigotry of whites for a bit longer. 

I just laughed: I found the company of most dogs better than that of most humans.


Most of you that read this the Lakota would call  Wasi’chu.

 Wasi’chu is a Lakota word that means “Non Indian” but another version of this word means “Takes the best part of the meat.”  

That is what will doom Man,  “The one who takes the best part of the meat.”  

It means Greedy. Greed will kill us all if we do not fight it.


I agree with Alex on Damyanti's blog:

With God there is always hope.  I can imagine the rolling eyes of some who just read that. 

The Lakota call God the Great Mystery,

and though only part Lakota, I often call him that, too, since what He is up to is usually a great mystery to me -- one such mystery is why He made us at all.

Two-leggeds. 

They insist on being oblivious to the obvious. 

In a world where they comfort their memories of being shabby by making of this wondrous world a maelstrom of meaninglessness. 

And in such chaos, how could there be God or His rules to live by? 

Yet their own scientists show the fallacy of this thinking with their Chaos Theory.  

 We must sometimes give the Great Mystery indigestion.

Great Mystery.  What is that name really?

Only a sound for what cannot be named or spoken or expressed in any correct way in human language

for He who sang us into being.

May each of us choose to identify ourselves as champions of the Great Mystery --

and be agents of healing in a diseased world.


16 comments:

  1. On vacation in South Dakota, I got this wild hair to tell several Sioux women that I had indian ancestry. I knew better in that I had already made this mistake in North Carolina. To my surprise, they smiled at me and were very gracious.
    The fact we were mature women probably influenced their response. It was such a shock to me to learn how hostile the situation was for native people. I feel so ashamed.

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    1. The Lakota are not over-joyed to be called Sioux as it was given to them by their enemies and means Snake. Just said to help you for your next encounter. :-)

      Yes, the Whites have been cruel to the indigenous people no matter the continent. Makes you wonder how we will be treated by space aliens, doesn't it?

      The women knew you were just trying to relate to them and be kind, and they were kind in return.

      You have nothing of which to be ashamed -- the white government has much.

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    2. Good to know the appropriate name is Lakota.

      I hope to see more books from native American point of view. At my age I doubt I will read many but for future kids it is good.

      IMHO, the world has always been a piss pour place. I had a younger relative tell me I was too nice. I told them sometimes the purpose of our lives is to shine some light in the dark.

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    3. The darker it is, the more we need the light of a single candle, right?

      I wrote CALL ME TOMBS to put a Lakota in strange surroundings confronting voodoo in the Carpathian Mountains of all things and coming to terms to who he really is.

      Wolf Howl, though bitter at the White government, teaches wisdom to high school children (both natural and supernatural) in END OF DAYS.

      And of course. there is THE LAST SHAMAN TRILOGY -- his epic adventure.

      Elu, McCord's Apache blood brother, brings the Indian perspective to all of McCord's adventures -- seeing Elu in 1895 Egypt is fun.

      Thanks for liking my books. :-)

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  2. It's a true pleasure to read anything Damyanti writes, as well as your own Blogs Roland.

    Yes, I see Science and Humanity (a good percentage of such), willing to destroy this Planet in Pursuit to see the face of God. Will the James Webb Telescope, (still incomplete), or the Hadron Collider allow any one to see the face of God? Not in my opinion, behind the Big Bang, I foresee a Black Dark Void. Is the risk worth it? No. As Buddha said: "Peace Comes From Within; Do Not Seek It With-Out."

    From "Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee", to Peter Matthiessen's: "In The Spirit of Crazy Horse", documented the Lakota Plights in Modern Day, including the biased FBI incarceration of Leonard Peltier: as well as any author has done.

    I bring up Peter, as He was a Soto/Rinzai Zen Buddhist Priest within Our 'White Plum Sangha.' One I got to know rather well, until Peter's passing last year. Peter in mine and many others, was the epitome of a Man who found the Divine Spirit, and breathed every moment, within that context......

    Gassho, Namaste, Metta for All, and Blessings for this entire Planet, the Humans who inhabit it; as well as the tremendous amount and depth of suffering of its Inhabitants.........! God Bless This Planet.....May Peace become the Human Condition; and Agape the Mindset of all Humanity.



    IMO, Agape in/of The Heart, is seeking, or placing oneself within that which is Divine. Nothing else matters, especially a Quest to see the face of God.

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    1. I am saddened to hear of Peter's death. You might try reading THE LAKOTA WAY by Joseph Marshall. It is a fascinating book.

      Heartless science may well be the end of us as it is often driven by greed and ambition. :-(

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    2. Thank You, I will take your advice, and indeed read "The Lakota Way."

      I look forward to it, as well as listening to your audio books.

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  3. Sometimes I despair of humanity. Often I despair. And then a bright soul reminds me that there is still good among us.

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    1. I despair often too. But like you, I see a child smile, and it is like sunlight through a church window -- and I feel hope again. :-)

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  4. It is easy to despair, too easy some days. I still have hope, for there is always that, but it gets harder and harder as we seem to be moving backwards instead of forward.

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    1. Each movement forward by loving hearts seems to be matched by a hundred blows of hatred, doesn't it?

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  5. Thanks for bringing more attention to this discussion, Ronald. We need more introspection in our generation.

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    1. The most dangerous but most rewarding exploration is the inward one. :-) Thanks for visiting.

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  6. It's easy to despair here in Canada right now, because we have an evil man ruling the country who is doing his best to destroy it in so many ways. Because we are Canada, no one outside our country knows or probably cares, but it is heart wrenching to us.

    However, we have an election coming up, and I have hope that we will finally get him out. But will we? Maybe not. A lot of Canadians are apathetic and will keep voting the same party in again and again, no matter what happens.

    All I can do is place my own vote and educate when I can. There are still so many people who don't have a clue about what he's done.

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    1. I am so sorry to hear that. It seems unless America's sons are threatened in some way, most Americans do not care about the heartache in other nations.

      But Canada is so close to America. We should care. I will pray that this agent of despair and destruction is voted out of office.

      The world is filled with powder kegs and idiots keep playing with matches -- Mark Twain

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  7. Hi Roland - man, sadly, is selfish ... too much tied up in his own personal world .. and not much help to others. Many live in poverty and just manage to live ... man is not thoughtful or caring. The earth will survive, I doubt we will ... but there's a while to go for us yet - and the earth will disappear too anon.

    We are living dangerously now - I'll now go over to Damyanti's posting .. Hilary

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