Charlotte Masuda Wrote:
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> In boarding schools they like to have things
> uniform, I wonder if the teachers think of the
> invisible implication of the system structure.
> Current teachers are far and away from the Hopi
> teaching as told in the chapter "The Nature of
> Man", that a child "lives a normal earthy life of
> a child" for seven or eight years, but then is
> taught that in addition to his earthy parents he
> is the child of "universal entities", and "he too
> had two aspects: he was a member of an earthly
> family and tribal clan, and he was a citizen of
> the great universe, to which he owed a growing
> allegiance as his understanding developed."
This is kind of close to what Navajo chldren are raised to believe. What is emphasized with them is that they are, I suppose, one with nature and to live their life in respect of nature itself. To "walk in beauty", knowing that they are one aspect surrounded by the sacred (nature) and are to treat it and others well.
>
> If it was so taught in schools all over the world,
> it would be a different place in one or two
> generation.
I would have to agree. I think the whole idea of responsible living found in several native cultures would probably have a positive effect on society today.
>
> "The third world flooded and the Navajo entered
> this world, which they call "the glittering
> world." Besides the Navajo may have arrived in the
> winter and marveled at the glittering snow, I
> could think up that the Navajo, like the Hopi, had
> "chosen people" among them whose soft spot on the
> top of their heads remains open, giving them
> "inner wisdom", seeing that in this, our world,
> most people didn't pay attention to the old
> aphorism that "all that glitters is not gold" and
> will run after fools gold; and knew that in their
> country of California there will be a "Tinsel
> Town" lol, creating, holding and exporting around
> the world a glittering mirage. But Hollywood has
> it's redeeming qualities.
Hee hee, who knows, maybe they were seeing "tinsel town" but I still suspect that it was the glittering white world of winter, as seen out here. The snow is so dry that it glitters as if somebody has sprinkled diamonds into it. Iirc, though, the Navajo don't have any lore in regards to the soft spot. I could be wrong and just never heard of it though. There are, unquestionably, special people born to the tribe. Those who have what we would call "esp", albinos, twins, children with mental handicaps and homosexuals--were all considered special traditionally. Possibly because their view or role in the world is altered from the norm so that they have a different perception.
Stephanie
In every man there is something wherein I may learn of him, and in that I am his pupil.--Ralph Waldo Emerson