Flower Power

[H2O Man]

“Well I see fingers, hands, and shapes of faces
Reaching up, but not quite reaching the promised land.
Well, I taste tears and prayers and precious years wasted,
Saying, ‘Lord, please give us a helping hand’.”
-- Jimi Hendrix


What I’m about to say may not be popular on this forum. But I’ve never been particularly concerned with being popular. I do try to be a Human Being, but recognize that entails many complexities and contradictions.

I believe that humans are Earth Flowers. As individuals, we have the potential to bloom, and to reach the highest levels of earth consciousness. Those higher levels are usually associated with the teachings of the human race’s great teachers, or masters. But it can be found in every-day life. Onondaga Chief Paul Waterman taught me to listen to the song of the smallest birds.

Earlier this week, for example, when I went to pick my daughter up from high school basketball practice, I saw “God.” A friend who really can’t afford to -- she is a single parent with many responsibilities -- had taken in a four-year old girl who had been rejected, hatefully, by her biological mother. This little girl, a Central American Indian, had been severely abused by her young mother (who now resides in NYC). The love of my friend and her family is providing this beautiful little child the fertile ground needed to bloom.

I’m economically poor at this time, and so I’m not in a position to offer my friend financial assistance. However, because some of the best lawyers and the judge in this county are friends and extended family members, I can make sure that all the legal costs my friend has volunteered to take upon herself will be provided at no charge.

There is also the potential for humans to do “bad” things. When a society such as our own secretes so much fear and hatred, it creates a poisoned environment -- just as surely as the mindless dumping of toxic industrial wastes poisons the environment. When healthy populations are exposed to high levels of toxic wastes in their land, air, and water, a number of them will develop cancerous growths in their bodies. When a population is exposed to the hatred, tensions, and fears that poison so much of this nation, it should come as no surprise that it will take root, and result in destructive individual rages.

I’m getting ready to go to my daughter’s school soon, to watch her basketball game. As a parent and a school board member, it’ll be the end of a busy week there: a couple of ball games (boys and girls), two board committee meetings, and a few meetings with teachers. After the game, my family and I will be going to our friends’ home; he is a teacher, and she is a social worker.

When I got up this morning, I thought today would be pleasant. That I’d be enjoying watching some of the youngsters who have grown in the garden that is our school. The other team comes from the next town, and so we’ll be seeing relatives and friends who are also there to enjoy watching their children and grandchildren play.

But tonight will be different. Today’s events will impact the mood. It’s not only the knowledge that it could have been our school, or the opponent’s, or your’s. It was someone’s. And it was everyone’s.

I gathered 68 stones earlier this week, mainly from a vein of white flint cobbles. Tomorrow, I will bring loads of wood down to the fire pit near my sweat lodge. On Sunday, I’ll be doing a sweat lodge ceremony, most likely by myself. Some people see power in weapons; others see power in corporations. I think that real power is found in nature, in the natural world. The stream where I’ll get my water for Sunday is power. The stones, the trees, the fire: they are power. Human beings have real power, too, and I believe that we need to gather it together, to contest all of that hatred that is being poured into our environment.

Onah.
H2O Man