Stand By ... for Standing Rock

Television used to remind us that we shared Turtle Island

Stand by, folks ... I'm attending something really cool later today and want to report on it then.


Thank you for your patience. A very, very dear friend from the Anishinabe First Nation came to our small community today to help us with a vigil for Standing Rock (one of a great many worldwide). The ceremony itself — especially the water blessing and the song Water is Life (written by someone here in our community) — was loving and healing. 

The talking circle afterwards, however, was POWERFUL. So powerful that when we got home, we learned that the American government (President Obama, the Army Corps of Engineers, the Department of Justice and the Department of the Interior) had earlier today denied the easement that would have allowed the pipeline to cross under Lake Oahe and the Missouri River through Standing Rock Sioux territory in North Dakota.

Frankly, I think the arrival of 4,000 US veterans woke a few people up — like smelling salts or a slap across the face. All of a sudden, all those militarized "law" enforcement officers were facing not "the other" but themselves. I can imagine that the arrival of the veterans felt like a rebuke ... but one from a loving elder who sees his younger (foolish) self in the faces of his grandchildren, and wants to guide them away from their foolishness. (But I could be imagining things.)

During our talking circle this afternoon, we heard the story about a grandmother's way of dealing with a bully. "The next time he bullies you or is mean to you, just look into his eyes until you see the Creator there," she told her granddaughter. The storyteller, who was quite young when this happened, did so. The next time the bully was mean to her, she gazed up into his face until suddenly, she saw the Creator in his eyes. "He melted," she said. "The bully in him just melted away." (I burst into tears realizing it was perhaps the first time that boy had ever felt truly seen.)

I think the enforcement officers at Standing Rock were looked at deeply today. I think they could not remain immune to the gaze when the gazers were themselves. "How could," they'd have been wondering, "thousands of my brothers and sisters be standing on the other side instead of on my side? What is wrong with my side?" Turns out it was so that the veterans could look deep into their eyes ... and see the Creator.

I pray that the enforcement folks finally felt seen and understood — and that they can now stand down, as fellow human beings, realizing how wrong they were about the people they'd turned into the enemy. "The friend of my friend must be my friend."

And we are all one on this Earth.

BTW, we here on the west coast of Canada are steeling ourselves for a fight to protect our ocean. And we will follow the lead of our coastal First Nations. Thank you, Standing Rock, for inspiring us with your example, your bravery and your fortitude. You've really started something!

*******

Whenever we talk about Standing Rock and other protests, we need to remember that if not stopped, fracking and the burning of oil, natural gas and coal will decimate the viability and the habitability of our biosphere. 

Well, America, This Compasson Tune-Up is for You

Tenterhooks. That's what much of the world is sitting on these last few days before the 2016 American presidential election. Friends in the United States, please do the right thing. We'll be thinking of you on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, it's been a long while since we had a compassion tune-up. This song, Make a Change, by Nahko and Medicine for the People (and featuring Zella Day), really struck a chord for me. I will make a change. I will do it. Not "I want someone else to do it." I will make the change that I want to see in the world! Powerful. 

For Standing Rock ...

 

[Zella Day]
If I make it out alive, I will make a change

[Verse 1: Nahko Bear]
I need a change, it’s evident
A transformation imminent
A chance for my soul’s intelligence to redefine lines of indifference
I ride past the spirit with the well-scratched pad
Always looking at my poetry for the reasons I had
Never stopped and let someone else take the wheel
Now I’m in the backseat like "What the fuck is real?"
Got to bury the hatchet
Bones, no casket
The dead don’t dance to a liar's message
So restless
Cross it off my checklist
Poetic warfare, a bear with horse hair
He’s reckless, acts like he’s got a death wish
True hey hoka, tricking the trickster
Laws of nature, loyal creature
Son of the most high, willing to wager my plan
And I'ma stick to it
I'ma ultimately liberate my consciousness

[Pre-Chorus: Nahko + (Nahko & Zella)]
I want the change
(I will make a change)

[Chorus: Zella + (Zella & Nahko)]
If I make it out alive, I’ll come out on the other side
If the sacrifice I owe is the reason that I die
And I know this too shall pass, so I put it in the past
And of all the things I fear, it isn’t now and it isn’t here
I’ll make a change (I will make a change)

[Verse 2: Nahko]
And it comes at a cost, well, that’s obvious
My list of distractions is infinite
My delusions of grandeur are all equipped
With dark lords, back doors, and some wizard shit
Well, I did not know they were gonna choose me
And I oughta take myself more seriously
'Cause what comes through me no it ain’t no trick
And I know that all of us are born with different gifts, so
Lift yourself from darkness, take a couple steps back
On an abstract attack I fell beneath the cracks
I didn’t come here to drone out and drag my feet
Stand in quicksand, both hands, and accept defeat
I got work to do, let me get back at it
The clock is tickin’, I can hear it through the static
Now I’m not being dramatic, enemies don’t sleep
In fact, some aren’t human and that’s hard to believe
'Cause I’m such a visual person, my third eye don’t lie
He’s a wise guy inside, even fooled himself twice
Thinking maybe I’m not ready to be leading the way
I mean, fuck, I’m only human, bound to make some mistakes
An earthquake took place within my lifetime of fear
I hear this too shall pass, the beginning is near

[Pre-Chorus: Nahko + (Nahko & Zella)]
I want the change
(I will make a change)

[Chorus: Zella + (Zella & Nahko)]
If I make it out alive, I’ll come out on the other side
If the sacrifice I owe is the reason that I die
And I know this too shall pass, so I put it in the past
And of all the things I fear, it isn’t now and it isn’t here
I’ll make a change (I will make a change)

[Verse 3: Nahko]
I wanna walk in righteousness
But I keep tripping over ditches of my selfishness
I wanna pass a fist to a pacifist
I keep beating 'round the bush instead of facing it
So I’m facing it, some gladiator shit
Yeah, I’m rippin' over rhythms, yeah, I’m healin' it
But it’s non-stop knocks from the mountain tops
To the city block. To the tanks: stop and block
Another brother got shot dead on the sidewalk
While the cops doing inside jobs and I'm shocked
So my hands are stretched out to the sky
Got some poems in my left and a gun in my right
And my eyes’ll cry over bulletproof pride
'Cause I know I didn’t come to make it out alive
And I thrive in the midst of a battle
Front lines, you can see me in the struggle
These are the songs of a walk towards revival
Even brave men can put down their rifles
I got my orders, and I'ma follow them
You can find me kickin' back inside the lion’s den
I’m making friends and amends with some evil men
Gonna bring them in, inject them with the medicine
I'ma do no harm, but I'ma take no shit
And I’ma build a bridge out of the emptiness
And then potentially, well, I'ma live to be
The hardest working bear in the fucking industry
Yeah!

[Outro: Nahko + Zella]
I will make a change
I will make a change
I will make a change