When we got to the river I discovered that it was indeed a lovely sight. We sat around for several minutes, looking at the river, while Mike went on about many things, in a drunken fashion that I'm familiar with first hand -- forgetting to let you know why certain things are connected or how they relate to anything, but eventually I put together that his whole entire trip was about his heritage of being a Native American. When found out I was from New York, he got a little excited and gave me the T-shirt he was wearing, which had a white buffalo on one side, and an eagle on the other. I told him he really didn't have to do that, but he was quite insistant. He was trying to explain to me what the significance of the shirt was, as well, but I couldn't get what he was trying to say. He was being quite scincere, as well. After he folded it up and gave it to me, he told me I had to give him my shirt. Well, I told him, I'm sorry, I like this shirt, I'd prefer to keep it. Now, I didn't want to refuse his gift, and I'm down with the exhange of gifts when you meet someone on a journey, and everything, but I just didn't want to give him my shirt. Instead, I told him I wanted him to have a peice of quartz I had from Sioux Falls. Eventually I reckoned time to go had come and I went back to my car, and gave Mike the quartz and said sure I'd give him a ride downtown. Ah, but then when we were underway he couldn't tell me where to take him, so I told him I had to leave for Calgary and was going to drop him off where I met him. So then he asked me for 5 bucks. Aaargh, I hate that. Ok, here's a little policy of mine: if someone is begging me for money he's doing something wrong, and if I give him money, I'm giving him positive reinfocement for whatever the hell he's doing. In Mike's case, I'm sure what he's doing wrong is spending all of him money on Booze. Anyhow, when I told Mike I wasn't giving him 5 bucks, or a ride to Calgary and that it was time for him to stop eating the sage I had hanging from the rearview mirror and get out, he asked me for howabout a beer. And do you know what? I was so pissed off by then, what did I do, I reached into the cooler and gave him the last beer from the 6 pack I bought a few days ago. Sort of defeates the purpose of my being all righteous about not handing out money, right? I may as well have given him the cash so he could choose the beverage of his choice... *sigh*.
|
|
|
| Anyway, above and to the left is the front of that frikkin T-shirt he gave me, and to the right is the back. I'm not sure what to do with it, because in as much as I believe in the metaphysical, if there are bad vibes, I feel that shirt is soaked in 'em. Oh, if you can explain any of the significance of the images, do let me know. | |
So I started thinking about quite a few things as a result of that less than excellent afventure, and, especially since Mike had been talking so much about being a Native American, about something that I've heard plenty about but not seen first hand. I've heard that genetically Natives have an insanely high rate of acoholism, to the degree that one could put the indroduction of alcohol in the top 3 reasons for the devastation of thier culture. Oh, and they really got shanked, if I recall my history correctly. I came at it from 2 perspectives.
Either way, I act similarly. I don't feel guilty, for one thing -- I have nothing to do with that past. And hey, even if you want to blame people for what thier ancestors did, my ancestors were busy being persecuted in far east Europe while the red man was being slaughtered. What I am concearned with is what happens now. Well, what's coming to mind is having everyone who can't live a North American Naitive lifestyle pack up and find somewhere else, thereby righting an ancient wrong by giving back what was stolen. Touble is, all the people of Naitive descent would have to bail too -- they are separated from that knowledge by a few generations at least. So then what? Does that mean that the best we can hope for is that in the future they will assimilate painlessly into modern American culture? I mean, in one sense, Natives don't have to take on the baggage of thier heritage. The psycological baggage, I mean, since obviously they can be discriminated against on the basis of thier skin color.
Ok, I don't have any resolution to these musings. It's depressing anyway you slice it, though, and if you have any insights, or wisdon, do let me in on it.