Thanks -- and No Thanks
and whose breath gives life to all the world, hear me, I am small and weak,
I need your strength and wisdom."
-- from a prayer
(Read Entire Prayer)
"Treat the earth well: it was not given to you by your parents,
it was loaned to you by your children.
We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors,
we borrow it from our Children."
The three day feast that brought together 90
Wampanoags and the 50 surviving Pilgrims at Plymouth Plantation in 1621 has become part of our nation's mythology.Unfortunately, the idyllic tale that was presented to me as a child was incomplete. It did present the legendary generosity of the Wampanoags, who graced the ill-prepared immigrant Europeans with sustenance and support to make it through their first winter.
Yet, it didn't portray the whole story.
Until the past few decades, our American mythology turned a blind eye to the dark side of the European colonization of the
Americas.
If the whole truth be told, a genocide began as my ancestors descended upon this continent. They brought with them a three-fold horror.
Embodying a worldview dominated by
white supremacy, a distorted and highly judgmental Christianity, and
the unbridled avarice of an emerging capitalism, "our forefathers brought forth on
this continent" a cultural cauldron that still wrecks havoc in the
world today. It is propelling us toward the horrors of climate disaster and nuclear warfare.
Although the set of ideals
set forth in the foundational documents of the United States reflect humanity's
quest for an egalitarian, democratic, and just society, the settler colonists (who received a land patent and funding from London investment corporations) brought
forth on
this continent disease, domination, and death. With their vision obscured by their worldview, most of
the Pilgrims who invaded Massachusetts at Plymouth didn't recognize the
humanity or the rich spirituality of the indigenous people of this
continent.
The indigenous people had lived in the vast expanse of what came to be called the Americas for upward of 10,000 years. Like other indigenous people, an ethos of connection and reverence was embedded in their worldview. All
of existence, the sentient and inanimate, the seen and unseen, was
perceived as an interconnected web of relationships. Reciprocity
rather than personal advantage were highly valued.
Our
forefathers
brought with them, instead, the unbridled greed buried
in the belly of capitalism and their myopic form of doctrinal
Christianity. Each produces a profound sense of separation.
Increasingly, each individual is experienced as fundamentally separate
from other individuals, from the natural world, and from a notion of the
immanence of the sacred dimension of being.
Through force of superior weapons, germ warfare, and the power of European political and religious"law," the European settler colonists arrived at Plymouth and elsewhere, then swept across the continent. Unfortunately for Mother Earth and her myriad beings, these forces still hold tremendous power in our world today. Propelled by powerful elites and a misshapen worldview, those who have the most institutional power in determining our future, seem dead set on a suicidal mission. If a nuclear war doesn't destroy life as we know it, a climate catastrophe may.
Yet, it doesn't have to be this way.It is true that history shows us that those with more guns and less morals have often taken power. Yet, in the 20th century, Mahatma Gandhi, armed with nothing but a spinning wheel, the force of Great Loving Soul, and the Power of the People, sent the mighty British Empire packing. Martin Luther King Jr. and legions of non-violent civil rights activists toppled the framework of legal racial segregation that had existed here in the "land of the free." other Non-violent revolutions toppled the Marcos dictatorship in the Phillipines, and the communist governments of eastern Europe.
So....?
(READ MORE)
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| The Sitting Bull you don't read about in your history books |
It has been years since I celebrated Thanksgiving as most folks in the United States do.
It's
true that I feel a deep gratitude for being alive at age 79. I'm
grateful that I experienced the collective kensho of the Hippie
Spiritual
Pentecost
of the 1960's and 1970's. Like many other folks of the "Woodstock Nation," I was catapaulted into a set of spiritual experiences that convinced me that God was Love. This set the trajectory of my life.
I also feel a deep gratitude for family and friends, and for
the great material richness that I experience even as poor pensioner living
well below the poverty line with the support of public housing, publicly funded health care, and food assistance.
Yet, in my morning meditation, I intend to practice Tonglen meditation, consciously taking time to mourn the horror and tragedy that ensued in the wake of the European invasion.
I will mourn the suffering of countless sentient beings whose lives have, and continue to be, stunted or destroyed through the lack of human decency and understanding that characterizes Rapacious Capitalism, White Supremacist Racism, and Clueless Christendom (Which is not to be confused with a Christianity that emerges from actually following Jesus's teachings of Love and Service). I will take time to connect with the One Love and radiate it from my heart as a prayer for our collective healing.
At this stage of the journey, I won't travel to Plymouth to observe the National Day of Mourning organized by the United American Indians of New England. Yet, this Gathering of indigenous people from
all across this hemisphere continues to inspire me. They will again be
live streaming most of the day's activities on YouTube this year. Respecting the wishes of the elders, the opening ceremony will not be
broadcast. They expect to "go live" virtually at about 12:30 PM. I feel a deep gratitude for the courage and the resilience and the leadership
of the First Peoples of this continent. I pray that I can continue to be a worthy ally.
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