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Monday afternoon I was driving back from the Oneida Reservation near Green Bay where I helped celebrate the life of a 92 year old Elder who had crossed over earlier in the weekend. It was a wonderful service with the booming bass voices of the Oneida Singers filling the church. The drive back was beautiful. The sun was finally out and seemed to be promising that we might actually have springtime before autumn sets in around mid-July here in Wisconsin. Life seemed good.
Then I turned on the radio and the chill of reality returned. I listened with sadness to a science report linking radiation leakage from cell phone use to the increasing disappearance of bee hives across the US and Europe. Einstein is reported to have said that if the Bees disappear, it will only be a few years until mankind follow. Sobering news. Then the news switched to the sickening report of the Virginia Tech massacre where the gunman is reported to have been laughing as he slaughtered al least 30 students and faculty in Norris Hall. Laughing as if he were playing a video game.
I’ve started thinking that the Luddites may have been on to something. No, I’m not advocating the use of violence to achieve our ends, but maybe they were right in thinking that it is time to start dismantling our latter day Industrial-Electronic Tower of Babel before it topples of its own accord and destroys us all. Maybe it is time to unplug for awhile.
Inplug from our cell phones. Unplug from our electronic communities and actually start the work of creating real, viable local flesh and blood communities, unplug from the violence, despair, and nihilism of the electronic media in all its varied forms. Boycott Hollywood and Reality TV. Unplug from the global economy for a season and eat locally produced food.
Last November I had the opportunity to take my family to Mound State Park near Tuscaloosa, Alabama. It is the site of one of the largest American Indian Mound sites in the Southeastern United States. We enjoyed a picnic by the Warrior River. As I laid down some tobacco and said the four directions prayer I heard the distinctive call of an eagle and looked up to see two eagles circling over head. It was a reminder that we are all connected.
I was reminded of mitakuye oyasin. Mitakuye Oyasin is Lakota Sioux for "All My Relations." It is a prayer of oneness and harmony with all forms of life: other people, animals, birds, insects, trees and plants, and even rocks. It reminds us that we are connected to these other aspects of Creation, that we share a common kinship in the Hoop of Life. Our American Indian traditions say that we are all related. That the bees that are disappearing are my sisters just as the sons and daughters that died in Virginia are my brothers and sisters. Several years ago I had a vision. No, before you ask, visions are not something that I have frequently. My wife and 5 and 6 year old daughters were away and I was alone at home in the silence of a cold January night. I was at that wonderful point in prayer where there was just the stillness of the One.
Suddenly it was as if I was sitting across a fire from my two grandfathers who have crossed over. Then their grandfathers appeared, and before I knew it all my grandfathers were there, they were black and white, red and yellow. All my grandfathers include all your grandfathers too. And so we sat by a roaring fire, watching in awe as sparks from the fire flew up to the Creator. It was a holy moment.
I mention this only to reiterate that we are all interconnected. That the same Creator who created the bees also knew me in the womb and knew you in the womb as well. The same spark of the Creator flows through all Creation and it is time for us to start honoring that spark again.
So, disconnect from the world wide web and reconnect with the web of life. Say a prayer for the bees, say a prayer for the families of the Virginia Tech victims, say a prayer for the children in Darfur, Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan, and the City you live in. Sing a song of praise for the gift of creation around you. Dance in honor of the Creator who placed the spark of life within you. Spin like a dervish until you fall in awe at the greatness of the Creator and all creation. Plant something in the ground. Nurture your environment, nurture your community.
Connect with someone today.
Pray for the bees
R.D.O.
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HHO
