The Last of the Eyak - Annie's Lament

Annie was the last living member of the Eyak, a people who lived in Northwestern Alaska before the influx of American salmon canneries. Her people were displaced and died from exposure to western diseases. Old and frail, Annie walks along on the beach at low tide, wailing the tragic fate of her people.

My poor aunt - I couldn't believe you were going to die.

How would I hear you?

I wish this - to go back to you there.

You are no more.

I just break out in tears and lament.

All along here I'll go around

Life Ravens I'll live along.

My aunts are dying off on me and

along I'll be living.

[In Honor of Eyak: The Art of Anna Nelson Harry. Alaska Native Language Center, University of Alaska: 1982]

Anthropology?

I have attended the first session of Dr. Dobres' course on Cultural Anthropology. Someone asked what types of careers anthropology might lead to; Dr. D responded by describing the various types of anthropology: cultural, archeology, social. I was intrigued by the idea of anthropology that considers the cultural impact on psychology. More directly, how has culture, especially the religious beliefs of a culture, affected the psychology of its members? This sounds fascinating. I've made an appointment to meet with Dr. D next week. More to come . . .

Happy 2010 - Expect the Best

2010 is going to be a wonderful year - and I am expecting the BEST. I suggest you do so as well. To what purpose do you expect the worst, looking forward to tragedy and calamity? None whatsoever. You will in no way be more prepared, for we do not prepare ourselves by worrying, but by taking action when there is action to be taken. Are there things in your life that you need to act on? Then do so. Or if you decide they are not worth doing, then let them go. Get them off your list and out of your mind.

I have a some wonderful things to do this year (in no particular order):

• Sew a black woolen skirt with woolfelt applique
• Make a beaded necklace for Trobie
• Finish Steph's cross-stitch
• Create a wall hanging with gelatin mold painting
• Complete my portfolio for 15 credit hours
• Do my internship
• Do my senior seminar
• Start my Big History book
• Develop three workshops for health and self-development
• Get business cards printed by MooCards
• Continue this blog
• . . .

I'm so excited! This will certainly be a wonderful year.

The Evolution of God

In his latest book, The Evolution of God, Robert Wright effectively argues that the moral imagination (e.g., the ability to put oneself in the shoes of another person) has evolved as a natural product of humanity’s evolution. He writes:

[A]s natural selection ground along, creating more and more intelligent forms of life, it eventually created a form of life so intelligent as to give birth to a second creative process, cultural evolution; and as cultural (especially technological) evolution proceeded, the human species exhibited larger and larger expanses of social organization, and eventually this expanse approached global proportions, and in the process there appeared a moral order, linkage between the growth of social organization and progress toward moral truth. (450).

Wright’s book provides a strong suggestion that the “purpose” and meaning of human history included the development of the moral imagination which itself, works to ensure the survival of the human species.

To Throw Away

-- a poem by Chase Twitchell

A smudge of flames takes the twigs,

the dry sisters of the leaves.

It's time to ask for the teachings.

From this high rock I can see

the granite faces of the mountains.

My thoughts are like the smoke

that begins in a heap of oak twigs

and ends diffused in the sky.

There's a Japanese expression,

"to throw away the world."

I can smell the balsams,

resinous in the first long cold.

In my mind I walk out into them.

The sound of boots in light frost -

my breath, feeding the fire of my question.

This short poem is one I am presenting with Robyn Dumont in my Transforming Words class tomorrow. The poem is the result of Twichell being bored with the poetry she had been writing, resulting in her dumping fifteen months' of work into the fire that her husband was burning outside. She grasped onto a new "frontier" for her poetry, answering what she said was the only question that is worth asking, "What is self?" She goes on to say that her test of her writing is how it reveals the mind changed by its mission, to answer the question of self.

Twichell is a practitioner of zen and lover of haiku. The poem, To Throw Away, is written in the form of a tanka: alternating stanzas of triplets and couplets, and alternating nature images with more contemplative elements. (Traditional tanka are written by two people, taking turns writing stanzas.)

I was initially drawn to the form of the poem and its nature images. Later, when I read Twichell's commentary about the poem, I appreciated the transformative impact of her burning her work - literally, throwing away the world of her last 15 months' of writing to reach a new space of centeredness in her work.

Women on the Edge of Evolution - Jean Houston

I've just finished listening to an amazing interview with Jean Houston as the second part of the teleseminar series, "Women on the Edge of Evolution." If you have not registered for this free series it is definitely worth your time and attention.

To sign up, simply go to http://womenontheedgeofevolution.com/ . If you can't listen at the time of broadcast, all interviews are archived and available immediately following the session. The entire series is focused around the idea that women all around the world are feeling the push to be part of the sweep of changes that are forming our future. By the second week over 15,000 women were listening in!

Anyway, back to Jean Houston. She is one remarkable woman, and she has some wonderful advice for those of us who are feeling the push to make a difference in the future, to be part of the evolutionary changes that are happening NOW!

Houston said:

I like to mythologize rather than pathologize. Women get caught, at the psychological level in western notions of ego. This is but one image of the self. Polyphrenia, the orchestration of our many selves is our expanded health. We live 5 or 6 different personalities, different roles during the course of the day. We also have a whole crew inside ourselves. We can take on different inner personas when we need their strengths. Women need to get to know the different people inside – the many different faces. As you begin to take on aspects of the crew of yourself, you will be able to access their strengths and wisdom. Make a list and become comfortable with these qualities of your aspects. These qualities will give a different perspective, different power and genius. Self-evolvement happens in accelerated fashion when women tap into polyphrenia.

So, my suggestion for today is to take some time today to begin to list and get comfortable with your personal crew.

Hugs and Star Sparkles, Ariel

The Leaves are Down

I just had the pleasure of rereading a portion of Annie Dillard's wonderful book, A Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. (A side note here - I first read this book when I was living just a few miles from Tinker Creek in Fincastle, Virginia).

One section, particularly apropos of the season, was about the falling leaves; and this lead to my picking up on an NPR article about leaves being pushed off their branches, rather than being pulled by the wind. It seems that deciduous trees have an "abscission hormone" that actually loosens the leaf from the branch. Then, when the cut becomes long enough, or a strong wind or scampering squirrel passes by, the leaf falls from the branch to the ground, gathering with its hundreds of thousands of fellow leaves in piles for children to run and jump in -- and families to rake into the compost heap.

Raking has become an annual family affair here at the Gills. We take turns raking, hauling to the back compost, and handling the leaf blower. Last year I was so greedy with the leaf blower that my hands were numb for about six hours - carpal leaf syndrome? This year Carla pulled out the lawn mower and plowed through the piles of leaves, chopping the little suckers into tiny bits. But, by the end of the day, the leaves were down and done for another year. . . as long as the huge piles in the neighbor's yard don't blow eastward into ours. (Is it too late to build a fence?)