| The Tewa people had many songs of praise to their holy ones, requesting assistance to live properly, to appreciate the beauty of the world around them, and it was probably blasphemy among them to appreciate something merely for its face value. In Japan, while one may speed through life with the velocity that could break the sound barrier, it is still important to appreciate and respect nature- not necessarily nature in the form of a lush garden, but perhaps in a single line of poetry dedicated to a flower, composed on the subway on one�s way home from work. Some small villages in Africa still are home to men whose entire lives are devoted to knowing the history of their people, men who know what happened on any given day in their village�s history as far back as hundreds of years. Every day in the here and now we glorify the ability to throw away that which has been a possession for longer than a month, especially people. Our pop stars are temporary idols that radiate from every television screen and store window for a few short years, then fade away like butterflies with much disgrace and shame to live the rest of their lives in obscurity and syndicated television. Nature, also, has very little room in the heart of the socially elite. If protecting baby seals is in fashion, then every family in Suburbia will send their child to school with a quarter to adopt one for the zoo. When seals have lost their popularity and appeal, the new focus becomes disappearing beanie babies. Some real dying treasures, such as the San Joaquin fox and the manatee have not got that cute factor that seals and collectible toys have, and they will pass into nothingness having never been known. While all that shines and is new is worshipped by our consumers, we forget our own history, and soil the names of our great heroes and founders by devoting scandalous, sex-ridden mini-series to them which are funded with money acquired from the destruction of their own monuments. Who paid for the mutilation of our history? A new burger chain in need of that extra few square feet for a parking lot. |