 By Stuart J. Whitley | Bio
About
three years ago, I assisted an aboriginal woman elder with a
presentation she was doing for the media. She was trying to explain the
role of justice as conceived by the first peoples of this continent.
Paraphrasing her: first, she said, there is the sky over all of us,
then there is the water below. What takes our breath away when we look
to the rivers and the forests is the same thing that possesses us when
we think about the wonder inside our own bodies. As the moon compels
the oceans with forces we can feel (if not fully understand), so is
every atom of water linked one to the other in performing the essential
tasks that the living earth needs. A rainstorm in the mountains stirs
our blood. What we do to the pond in the slough where the horses graze,
we do to the world. As goes the fate of the smallest creek, goes the
fate of us all. All things are connected. [ Read More]
Written by admin at Fearless Aging
Tagged with:
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ethic
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By Stu Whitley
Bio
This is the first post in a three-part series.
O body swayed to music,
O brightening glance,
How can we know the dancer from the dance?
—W.B. Yeats (Among School Children)
I had lunch with an old friend, a Tlingit
elder, Harold, today. I’ve known Harold for nearly a dozen years. And I
know him to be a serious, thoughtful man; he’s someone who has taught
me many things, not the least of which was the powerful consequence of
even the smallest positive intervention in someone’s life. I have seen
it in action: Harold is the embodiment of Emerson’s dictum that it is
one of the most beautiful compensations of this life that no man can
sincerely try to help another without helping himself…”serve and thou
shall be served”. Harold helped me, a lawyer, see love in a loveless
system.
[ Read More]
Written by admin at Learning
Tagged with:
aboriginal
assessment
elder
racism
rights
By Stu Whitley
Bio
This post is the first in a five-part series.
As a young boy growing up in
England, I was consumed with tales of the ‘Dark Continent’. The memoirs
and descriptions of Burton, Speke, Livingston and Stanley enthralled
me, especially their references to the fabled graveyard of elephants,
where the fading behemoths of the Serengeti went to die. Trying to
conceive of a place like this was such an effort that it faltered on
the steps of my young imagination. The African elephant can live as
long as 70 years or more: the idea that this intelligent beast should
know its time nears and be drawn to a resting place with its kin seemed
fantastic.[ Read More]
Written by admin at Learning
Tagged with:
elder
future
obsession
time
with
youth
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