When the Lakota leader Sitting Bull was asked by a white reporter why his people loved and respected him, Sitting Bull replied by asking if it was not true that among white people a man is respected because he has many horses, many houses? When the reporter replied that was indeed true, Sitting Bull then said that his people respected him because he kept nothing for himself.” –Joseph Bruchac – Photograph: Orlando Scott GoffGood
Good morning everyone, I found this in my research today. It was posted 4 years ago on the Parabola (The Search for Meaning) site on tumblr.
How well said, and so simply .. it brings us back once more to the individuality of each of us, and how our cultures shape our thinking.
However that said, we are not back living in a time when the differences were not known, researched, studied, and documented. This is 2016 an electronic age, we can sit in our homes and watch documented reports of what is going on around us. There are thousands of published reports, books, magazines, videos and spoken story books. There is no reason for us to not know about our neighbours.
“Before our white brothers arrived to make us civilized men, we didn’t have any kind of prison.
Because of this, we had no delinquents.
Without a prison, there can be no delinquents.
We had no locks nor keys and therefore among us there were no thieves.
When someone was so poor that he couldn’t afford a horse, a tent or a blanket, he would, in that case, receive it all as a gift.
We were too uncivilized to give great importance to private property.
We didn’t know any kind of money and consequently, the value of a human being was not determined by his wealth.
We had no written laws laid down, no lawyers, no politicians, therefore we were not able to cheat and swindle one another.
We were really in bad shape before the white men arrived and I don’t know how to explain how we were able to manage without these fundamental things that (so they tell us) are so necessary for a civilized society.”
— John (Fire) Lame Deer.
This also was found on tumblr,in a post, Desert Dreamer, from Cape Town, South Africa
Just some food for thought to go along with your coffee. I find it extremely interesting and thought provoking that no matter who we are, or what our backgrounds are, we ALL strive for peace and want it in our lives.
Everyone we meet, lives with us, under the same sky, reach out with an act of kindness today. A smiles goes a long way…….
Namaste – Oyashikiri
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