Seems to me we are living in an age where everyone has a cause (even those that have no cause usually say:" screw it, I don't care about anything" that's their cause.)
I am aware we are different from say my grandfather's days. He would not think about raising awareness about global climate, modern day slavery to name a few. But once again, my grandpa had a vegetable garden, never used plastic bags, there was a grocery bag at his house to take to the store & as I remember he always stood up for whats right. He didn't do that because he read it in a book, or was an activist, he was not a special case, everyone from his generation lived a similar life. Which got me thinking that we pride ourselves in being so smart, advanced, educated, tech-savvy and such, but we have missed the point in a lot of things that came naturally to generations before us.
Talking to someone my grandpa's age (my grandpa died when I was a kid) he was telling me that in his family too they had a vegetable garden and lived a similar life. He told me about the "three sisters." Three Sisters is what they would call the growing of corn, beans and pumpkins. The corn plant would provide a place for the bean's vines to grown on. In turn the beans would oxigenate the earth where the corn plants were. On top the pumpkin plant would provide shade for both of their shallow growing roots and keep weeds of the garden. When harvested, you would have a lot of what your body needs by cooking with beans, corn and pumpkins.
They didn't go to a seminar to learn this, they didn't research it, or anything like it, it was common knowledge.Somewhere along the lines we lost that bounty of information. Probably because we were too busy enjoying the new technologies, or watching TV or not believing what was coming from our elder's mouth because there was no scientific data to back it up or was not mentioned in our favorite tv show/magazine/blog.
I feel I am lucky enough to have older relatives to call them, visit them, chat with them and ask them to share their wisdom with me. More and more I find that a lot of things that we are "discovering" now, were already common knowledge for our elder ones and we chose not to listen. Think about it for a second. Put aside all the wives-tales but think about the real things they knew. As in every generation they got a few things wrong (sometimes really wrong, but let's look at ourselves for a second) but as in everything in my life I like to concentrate on the positive.
I feel when we lost respect to our elders and chose to ignore them, we made a mistake and there is a disconnect between us. We are loosing the wisdom that is ours, about our ancestry, our background, first hand accounts of historical moments and so forth.
This week I will seek out the elders in my family and the community I am in. I will ask, listen and share respectfully. I will honor those that lived before me, those that have seen things I never will, those that were on this ship we call Planet Earth a lot earlier than me.
I invite you to do the same and share your stories.
Pablo
I was raised to always listen to my elders. I spent summers with my grandfather in florida and much time with my grandmother in ct. I still see my grandmother weekly. I have learned alot from them and my aunts and uncles. It is true that many people take for granted what they knew and now are gaining the same answers.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I was different because I never watched TV, or paid attention to what was in and out of fashion. But I can tell you many of the things I learned from my elders and still do learn applies in my daily life.