They talked about cutting logs next week.
About the two contracts one of them had with the Indian Dene
band to fix up an old log cabin in the village.
Then they talked about a settlement some B.C. band had
made with the government for millions of dollars.
One said to the other that he needed his
car plates back.
In English everyday things were discussed.
A few words were shared in private as they hid behind
their native Slavey language.
One gave the other a twenty dollar bill.
Mashi (Thank - you)
Then the other one was gone.
" You loaned him twenty dollars?" I asked.
Stupid question, I had already seen the exchange.
" No, I didn't loan him anything." he replied.
" I gave it to him. He's my friend."
" Gave it too him? " I countered.
I said no more more.
Once before he had told me that it was the native way to give
what one had when asked.
it was taken for granted that a person wouldn't ask if
there had been no need. Furthermore, when the other person
had the means, they would do the same for you.
I remember protesting against this idealism attitude. " It's
wonderful if it works, but it's an attitude that persons with
selfish tendencies tend to abuse." I had argued.
" The world has
changed, it can't be done that way anymore," I had declared.
He hadn't responded. At that time I had written a short poem titled
Progress,
based on what he had told me about the Indian way.
PROGRESS
Beneath the frozen lands of winters not so kind.
I found a life of a much different kind.
One where there was meant to be no lies.
Where children were taught to honor family ties.
Dene people carrying a natural view.
Believing that goodness
grew inside of those they knew.
Truly respecting the golden rule.
Stealing was never perceived.
Actions were based on need.
What a brother might have taken,
he would someday return to me!
Sharing shaped the creed of an honest community.
Strange people came with their ownership attitudes,
teaching ideas native people weren't used too.
Labels became attached to almost everything.
The Dene were taught value's that hoarding brings.
One hundred years later;
closed government houses replaced their once open
lodges and tee-pees,
everything's now under lock and key.
Gone is the open sharing.
Most can't recall their true identity.
---------------------
Here I sat, a professed Christian, observing a refined,
Christian precept read about in the Bible, being put into
action by someone who has never taken the leap. His attitude
forced me to admit that what I had labeled as a carelessness
was really unselfishness in action.
Sure, I have performed kind deeds and acts that have an agape
quality about them, and most times I knew my heart was in the
right place. But does our claimed, renewed nature always
testify to those heavenly characteristic on a consistent basis?
I had just spent a selfless five days, caring for this mans
four, rather demanding children, while he had been away
attending a training session out of town that would prepare
him for a full time job he so desperately needed. I had felt
slightly virtuous about my act of sacrifice to this needy
friend of mine. The reason we were out at the bakery having
a snack at that very moment was because I had told him the
least he could do was buy me a coffee and donut for my
baby-sitting efforts. All my virtuous feelings were washed
away in light of what just happened. I felt an invisible slap
in the face upon hearing him say, " It wasn't a loan. I just
gave it to him because, he's my friend."
What a wonderful concept! This way there is no mixed feeling
when he forgets to pay it back. There's no chance for the
seeds of bitterness or hostility to grow between them
because there were no conditions attached to the deed in the
first place! If he really gave it just because he was asked
to, and that was the end of it,
with no power tripping, self gratifying remarks, then I
had witnessed a minor miracle.
So many things entered my mind as I contemplated how our Lord
gives generously to us sinners living here on Earth. He was
the first one to give without any questions asked.
Expecting only that loyalty and love be returned.
Most of the time we borrow what is rightfully His
with no intentions of ever returning anything of true worth.
Not that He expects a high return on His
investment. He seems satisfied to receive the type of love
and respect that we humans also seek out in our own daily
relationships. He seeks the heart that is willing to be
touched and transformed by a love humanity has all but
forgotten.
Perhaps our feelings of being chosen, or special because we
have the knowledge of truth, has become a two edged sword
that allows us to be blinded by our own, hardened faults?
Our eyes are only open when we look up into the face of God.
On long winter nights, when I gaze into the endless, star
studded, black sky, and marvel at the floating art show
created by the affects of the Aurora Borealis, I am reminded
that, as salt is a metaphor to the Christian condition, so
are the Northern lights to the reborn spirit, as they lighten
and bring life into an otherwise, darkened existence.
Without darkness, there is no backdrop for the light to shine
on. The closer one gets to the top, the more streaks can be
seen in hidden beauty others see not. If you stare to
long below, or heavens not what you desire to behold, all you
will discover is the bite and frost of the cold. Time
reveals everyone's inner goals.
Perhaps I still needed to focus a bit higher and take another
step closer to God, yeilding to Him the deeper imperfections
that anchored my soul to this selfish earth. Then He could
grant me the heavenly gift of seeing through that darkened
glass of Godly separation by sin just a wee bit clearer.
Awaking in me the much deeper, inner sense of a nobler view
of charity like I had just witnessed.
Somehow, many of us have picked up an unconscious ides that
we are allowed to horde some of our personal baggage and
material effects, hiding under the concept of personal
boundaries, although we don't always allow God that same
privilege. God is treated as if He has unlimited resources
available for our selfish uses. What about the irreplaceable
time we have been allotted for our mortal life span? We
cannot be given a second chance once we used that time up.
Did God not give us His one and only begotten Son, Jesus?
The holiest, unrenewable resource ever available to mankind.
I wonder if we just don't tend to borrow of His precepts,
grace and mercy, never ceasing our relentless greed until it
collide's into our own shallow, expendable, resources?
That genuinely, unselfish attitude, that I seen projected by my
Northern friend, although easy to brush away with the many
harsh bristles on the broom of Earths realities,
is a throw back from our most earliest ancestors genes.
From a time before sin when mankind wasn't totally bent on
themselves. From a time here on
Earth before the first Adams were split in two.
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