cutting cloth.

When we see something new and different, it seems like it is almost instinct to search for something in our own worlds we can relate it too; something that makes us feel more comfortable with the surroundings. Far too many times in history has one culture arrived on the shores of another's and made themselves at home, i.e. pushing everything previous out of the way, making room for themselves.

The native peoples who welcome all living things that breathe, and even some that don't into their hearts, cherish the land they walk upon, for it a living, breathing being itself that needs the inhabitants just as much as they need it, are stripped of this sacred ground they have been living on for thousands of years because they are not 'civilized' in the eyes of the newcomers. Those concerned with building empires and fulfilling manifest destiny find these peoples to be archaic and savage. From their ways of living off the land without settling into one place to their way of prayer and beings worshiped, their life is founded and based off of tradition. Tradition is so heavy in culture that the concept of time does not exist, not even in their vocabulary.

Instead of trying to understand and learn from these peoples; especially their knowledge of the game, land, and waterways, these 'explorers' slaughter the people's way of life. Taking the land from them, jamming religions and ideals into their ears to make them 'civilized', and forcing these people to comply with ideas that go against thousands of years or spoken tradition.

Who now, would be considered the savage?

[I realized this topic has been discussed many times, but upon reading Wade Davis's The Wayfinders, Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World, I felt like I had to post something about it. These images were taken in Prague and Berlin, while I was reading this work. Davis wrote the book for a series of lectures for CDC Radio and Massey College at the University of Toronto, which were commissioned and broadcast over the radio waves. Davis's lectures were broadcast in November of 2009.

It has been a very long time since something has hit me so strongly and made me really think about the current state of living and what we are doing to ourselves. It feels like we are cutting the very cloth that covers civilization as it used to be. The new has not grown from the old, but replaced it, the root is no existent. Can a tree really just float? If you can get your hands on this work by way of second hand book story or library, I would highly recommend it. Remember, the ground you walk on is pulsing with life. Take it in, and breathe right back into it.]


don't forget where you come from, so you can be aware of where you might be headed..

-lowt-