Choices

Do I believe that in "becoming willing" I have made the best of all choices?

We must never be blinded by the futile philosophy that we are just he victims of our inheritance, of our life experience, and of our surroundings --- which these are the sole forces that make out decisions for us. This is not the road to freedom. We have to believe that we can really choose.

Genesis 2:15-17 --- The Lord God took the man, and put him into the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the Lord God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."

God gave Adam responsibility for the garden and told him not to eat from the knowledge of good and evil. Rather than physically preventing him from eating, God gave Adam a choice, even though Adam might choose wrongly. God still gives us choices today, and we, too, often chose wrongly. These wrong choices may cause us pain and irritation, but they can help us learn and grow and make better choices in the future. Living with the consequences of our choices is one of the best ways to become more responsible.

Everyday of our human existence is filled with a multitude of choices. From the moment we awake to the moment we finally fall asleep, we make many choices … what we'll eat, what we'll wear, and of course what we'll do. Many of the choices we may make are insignificant in many ways, yet the same choices depending upon the situation can also be quite significant.

For example, what we eat, is for the most part based upon what we like and have developed a taste for. However, if we have one of various health problems there are certain things we should not eat. Also there are certain things that are poisonous, or if not stored or prepared properly can cause sickness and even death.

Another example, what we wear. We must often consider a number of things when we choose what we will wear. Are we going someplace? What is the weather going to be like? If we are staying at home, we may choose not to get dressed and stay in our pajamas. We would most likely not choose to wear shorts, a tank top and sandals outside, when the temperature is 10 degrees below zero. We would most likely not wear a tuxedo or formal gown to do yard work.

We often hear from psychologists and psychiatrists that a certain individual is genetically predisposed to such and such condition, for example, being an alcoholic or diabetic. Obviously one is quite different from the other in a general medical sense. However they both are often subject to personal choices, sometimes associated with a psychological or physiological need. How many times have we had such a desire or want for something that we've ignored our inner gut feeling of not to and done it anyway?

Often times we make choices based upon our life experiences. For example we may be extremely hesitant to go into a body of water that is over our head if we have experienced nearly drowning, i.e., the sense of danger. Yet in the same vein, we may also strap into a top fuel dragster, amidst the potential danger, merely because of the adrenaline rush that it provides us.

Yet one of the most common and frequently used excuses for our choices is based upon "That's how I was raised," or "I'm a product of the society I live in." Is that really how we want to live our lives and make choices about the things we do in life? Two of the most common cliches of this manner of thinking are: "When in Rome do as the Romans do," and "A million Frenchmen couldn't be wrong." These choices are based not upon life experiences or wisdom but based upon our perception of the world around us.

An aphorism I like to express the issue of choice: "In effect it (life's choices) can be likened to the soldier who is alone and trapped behind enemy lines. He knows there are enemy patrols out searching for him, and if they catch him they will kill him. Between him and his own army is a vast minefield. His options of getting back are continuing to try and evade the enemy patrols and circumnavigate the minefield risking capture and sure death. Or using his military training and skills and attempt to navigate his way through the minefield still risking death but with the knowledge that the enemy patrols will not follow him into the minefield. And that should he make it through the minefield he has secured life by embracing death."

Much is the same with daily life and our individual journey along the path of life. The experience we gain by embracing death, embracing our fears, becomes a life changing experience of how to change our life by facing our deepest and darkest fears. Do I face my fears head-on with the intent of having nothing to loose? Do I continually try to take detours staying in familiar surroundings? Do I daily embrace death in today's battle for my life? For each moment and choice is a battle for life. What is my life worth? Am I content to follow the path of others and possibly loose the battle today? Yes there are times which only wisdom from experience can tell us which is the path of least resistance or effort; and which path will grant us personal freedom should we successfully navigate the day's minefield. What is my life worth? Am I content to follow the familiar, or am I willing to step out of my comfort zone and face my shadows? Will I continue to be haunted by my shadows and stay where life is comfortable? The choice is mine and mine alone; no one can make it for me or help me make it.

I ask you to think back to the years as a little child, when you may have been told to stay out of the cookie jar because it would ruin your dinner. Did you? Or did you allow the desire of those cookies to overrule what you were told? What was the feeling in your gut, as you looked around the room to make sure no one was watching and reached your hand into the cookie jar? It is that same gut feeling that comes from our heart-of-hearts that gives us the proper answer, no the desire of our thoughts.

How do we base our personal choices? Do we examine the potential consequences of those choices? Do we examine not only the individual consequences but also those to others? Do we make our choices based upon the social norms of society? Do we rely on our thinking instead of our heart? Lastly, are we willing and ready to accept and take full responsibility for the choices we make and the consequences or results of those choices?

Politically Incorrect: On Owning

Owning things is what white people's lives are about. From the first you are told, "This is mine, this is yours;" "Don't touch that, it doesn't belong to you." You are told to keep away from things because of ownership, not because of respect. In the old days we never had locks on our doors. There was no stealing, but if someone was hungry, they could go in your house and get food. Why didn't people take things? Because of respect.

You build fences around your yards and pay money for people to measure the ground to tell you if your neighbor's fence is one inch too close to your house. You give nothing away unless you can get something in return. Everything is economic. No wonder white people need such big houses. They aren't to live in, they are to store things in.

We believed everything was a gift, and that a good man or woman shared those gifts. Good people thought that they should give, not that they should get. We didn't measure people by rich or poor. We didn't know how. When times were good everyone was rich. When times were bad everyone was poor. We measured people by how they shared.

Things are important when we need them. If we don't need them, they're not important. Our ancestors believed that you owned something only so long as you needed it. Then you passed it to someone else.

In our way, everything had its use, then it went back into the earth. We had wooden bowls and cups, or things made of clay. We rode horses or walked. We made things out of the things of the earth. Then when we no longer needed them, we would burn them or leave them, and they would go back into the earth. Now we can't. Now things don't go back into the earth.

Politically Incorrect: On Land and Property

Let me tell you how we lost the land. It wasn't our land like we owned it. It was the land where we hunted or where our ancestors were buried. It was the land that the Creator had given us. It was the land where our sacred stories took place. It had sacred places on it. Our ceremonies were here. We knew the animals. They knew us. We had watched the seasons pass on this land. It was alive, like our grandparents. We were part of it. The land was part of us. We didn't even know about owning the land. It is like talking about owning your grandmother. For us, the earth was alive. To move a stone was to change her. To kill an animal was to take from her. There had to be respect.



We saw no respect from these people. They chopped down trees and left animals lay where they were shot. They made loud noises. They seemed like wild people. They were heavy on the land and they were loud. Then these new people started asking us for the land. They wanted to give us money for the land. Our people didn't want this. Then these people said that we didn't belong here anymore. That there was a chief in Washington, which was a city far away, and the land was his, and he said they could live here and we could not.



We thought they were insane. These people would ride across the land and put a flag up, then say that everything between where they started and where they put the flag belonged to them. That was like someone shooting an arrow into the sky and saying that all the sky up to where the arrow went belonged to him. We thought these people were crazy. They were talking about property. We were talking about the land.



Your people came from Europe because they wanted property for their own. They had worked for other people who had claimed all the property and took all the things they raised. They never had anything because they had no property. That was what they wanted more than anything.



Everyone believed that whoever had a piece of paper saying they owned the land could control everything that happened on it. The people came here to get their own property. We didn't know this. We didn't even know what it meant. We just belonged to the land. They wanted to own it.



Your religion didn't come from the land. It could be carried around with you. Your religion was in a cup and a piece of bread, and that could be carried in a box. Your priests could make it sacred anywhere. You couldn't understand that what was sacred for us was where we were, because that is where the sacred things had happened and where the spirits talked to us.



Your people didn't know about the land being sacred. You were killing all the animals. The buffalo was gone. The birds were gone. You would not let us hunt. You gave us blankets and whiskey that made our people crazy. We were put in little pens of land that were like tiny islands in your sea.



The worst thing is that you never even listened to us. You came into our land and took it away, and didn't even listen to us when we tried to explain. You made promises and you broke every one. You killed us without even taking our lives. You killed us by turning our land into pieces of paper and bags of flour and blankets, and telling us that was enough. You took the places where the spirits talked to us and you gave us bags of flour.



To us the land was alive. It talked to us. We called her our mother. If she was angry with us, she would give us no food. If we didn't share with others, she might send harsh winters or plagues of insects. We had to do good things for her and live the way she thought was right. She was the mother to everything that lived upon her, so everything was our brother and sister. The bears, the trees, the plants, the buffalo. They were all our brothers and sisters. If we didn't treat them right, our mother would be angry. If we treated them with respect and honor, she would be proud.



For your people, the land was not alive. It was something that was like a stage, where you could build things and make things happen. You understood the dirt and the trees and the water as important things, but not as brothers and sisters. They existed to help you humans live.



You took the land and you turned it into property. Now our mother is silent. But we still listen for her voice.



The picture at left is the ending still of a "Keep America Beautiful" television advertisements in the 1970’s. In the advertisement Iron Eyes Cody is standing by the roadside as a passerby tosses a fast-food drink cup to the roadside, landing at Cody’s feet. The camera pans upward and freezes at the picture to the left.

The words of Chief Seattle, "If men spit on the earth, they spit upon themselves," emphasize the love and respect Native Americans have for Mother Earth.
Please Keep Mother Earth Beautiful!

Politically Incorrect: On Leaders

Sitting Bull was a leader. He was a real chief. People followed him because he was great. He never won any election or was appointed by any government. That's not how you get to be a leader. It was an honor you earned.

There are leaders and there are rulers. We Indians are used to leaders. When our leaders don't lead, we walk away from them. When they lead well, we stay with them.

Your system makes people rulers by law, even if they are not leaders. How can a calendar tell us how long a person is a leader? That's crazy. A leader is a leader as long as the people believe in him, and as long as he is the best person to lead us. You can only lead as long as the people will follow.

In the past when we needed a warrior we made a warrior our leader. But when the war was over and we needed a healer to lead us, he became our leader. Or maybe we needed a great speaker or a deep thinker.

The warrior knew when his time had passed, and he didn't pretend to be our leader beyond the time he was needed. He was proud to serve his people, and he knew when it was time to step aside. If he won't step aside, people will just walk away from him. He cannot make himself a leader except by leading people in the way they want to be lead.

That's why Sitting Bull was a leader. He was needed by the people and the people followed him. He was brave. He was smart. He knew how to fight when he had to. And he understood what the white man was all about. People saw that he could not be tricked by the white man, so they followed.

That's why the U.S. government hated him so much. It wasn't just that he set a trap for Custer. Anyone could have done that. It was because he was a leader and people listened to him, and he wouldn't listen to the U.S. government. He listened to the needs of his people.