A Path in the Woods [View all]

[H2O Man]

“Human nature will not change. In any future great national trial, compared with the men of this, we shall have as weak, and as strong; as silly and as wise; as bad and good. Let us, therefore, study the incidents of this, as philosophy to learn wisdom from, and none of them as wrongs to be avenged.”
President Abraham Lincoln


I was thinking about Joy Reid one morning this past week, as I was preparing to go for a walk. Admittedly, I am not entirely objective when it comes to her. She is someone that I hold in high esteem. But, no matter if you like or dislike Joy, you are invited to stroll along this path I took.

Before heading out, I took my dogs out to “do their business.” As Samuel and I reached his favored spot at the north end of my lawn, we saw a large deer staring at us. She recognized that we intended her no harm, but continued to watch us until we headed back inside the house.

My son had left me some broccoli to feed the baby rabbits that live under my front porch. Their mother is a wild rabbit, and their father is my younger daughter's pet; he escaped from his cage last summer, and enjoys hanging out with our cat.

Then it was off to pick up a friend, and walk one of our favorite trails. He had been reading one of my books on Mohawk leader Joseph Brant and the Revolutionary War, while recovering from a recent amputation. This path is one Brant traveled upon back then. As we hobbled along, we noticed some very recent prints in the soil: a bear had come through the bushes, and walked along the path for a good distance, before heading back into the heavy brush. (The next morning, a friend who lives about 1/8th a mile away posted a photo of a bear, approximately 350-400 pounds, dining from his garbage cans, on Facebook.)

Brant has been incorrectly recorded as a Mohawk chief by non-Indians since the Revolutionary War. He was never a chief (this would have required the Mohawks and then the Haudenosaunee (Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy) Grand Council of Chief's approval …..which could only have come after the Clan Mothers approved of him. But the Clan Mothers, who look for potential leadership qualities in children from an early age, determined he lacked the essential qualifications. (Brant did have a title that translates to “chief warrior” among the large and diverse group of Indians and escaped slaves that he led in the war.)

Selecting “leadership” qualities is a complicated process. It involves the entire community …..and even then, one's past mistakes were always known by somebody, and thus brought into the discussion. But past mistakes did not always keep a man or woman from a leadership position. They recognized that even the Chiefs and Clan Mothers were human beings, and would therefore be prone to making mistakes. It's how they deal with being human that matters.

Indeed, the first Tadodaho – the head of the Grand Council – had been recognized as an evil man before being transformed by the Power of the Good Mind (which comes from the community putting their heads together for the good of the people). Onondaga Chief Waterman told me that it was only from being so “bad,” that the Tadodaho could become so “good.”

So, because in my old age – experienced in this aging bag of bones – I try to walk those paths, like the one I was walking with my friend, slowly. In doing so, we both found a few flint projectile points, dating from approximately 800 ad back to 1800 bc ….proof, I suspect, that walking slowly can be a good thing.

Now, of course, I'm back resting inside of my home. Reading DU, I note that some people are expressing outrage about Michelle Wolf's recent presentation. I assume that most are concerned about her jokes about Kelly Ann Conway, when she said that she hoped a tree would fall on her, pinning her down, but not injuring her. Although it seemed like a joke to me, later in the week, I'll go for another walk in the woods.

Peace,
H2O Man