Let's lighten up as we honor a season of peace

We're taking a much needed break from the trials and tribulations of our times. Today we want to welcome the holiday season that starts next week. The city of Taylors Falls has their Christmas lighting celebration one week from today, with activities of one sort or another continuing throughout the weekend. Paul Douglas tells us we might be able to expect warmer, and, we hope, drier weather on Thanksgiving and the next day. We believe that's an early Christmas present and something for which we can give thanks.

old fashioned decorations on a historic library

Photo by J. Harrington

Taylors Falls and Franconia had a number of settlers from New England, and there are still historic buildings that remind us very much of our native Massachusetts. Christmas decorations nicely enhance a feeling of being "back home." We don't live in Taylors Falls, but we are next door neighbors, once removed, and the coffee at Coffee Talk is usually excellent. We look for as many excuses as we can find to visit.

Coffee Talk with luminaria in front

Photo by J. Harrington

The approaching Christmas season has an interesting, new facet this year. Our "Christmas book" (we get a new once each year since the children were young) this year is An Aboriginal Carol and we'd like to share the Introduction, because we don't remember ever seeing, hearing, or reading anything like it.

"ACCORDING TO TRADITIONAL FIRST

NATIONS KNOWLEDGE AND BELIEF, JESUS

CHRIST WAS REINCARNATED BEFORE

CONTACT BETWEEN THE WHITE EUROPEAN

PEOPLE AND THE WENDAT (HURON) PEOPLE.

JESUS WAS KNOW AS DEGANAWIDEH,

THE PEACEMAKE. HE BROUGHT

THE KAYENEREHKOWEN OR GREAT

LAW OF PEACE TO THE HODENAUSAUNEE
OR IROQUOIS."

There are those who teach, and the U.S. Senate acknowledges, that the Great Law of Peace served as a model for the U.S. Constitution.  As we noted yesterday, November is National Native American Heritage month. Somehow this key piece of information hadn't come to our attention until recently. This Thanksgiving, when we (re)read Ohén:ton Karihwatéhkwen (Words Before All Else) we will remember to also give thanks that the Iroquois had such a helpful model to provide. We may also say a prayer that more peace will come to our elected representatives and that they may come to include the two parts of the Great Law of Peace that were originally omitted:

• The Seventh Generation principle: The Constitution of the Iroquois Confederacy states that chiefs consider the impact of their decisions on seven generations into the future.


• The role of women: Clan mothers choose candidates [who are male] as sachems [political leaders]. The women maintain ownership of land and homes, and exercise veto power over any council action that may result in war. The women can also impeach and expel any leader who conducts himself improperly or loses the confidence of the electorate; then the women choose a new leader.

ice luminaria

Photo by J. Harrington

Contemporary events clearly demonstrate, in our opinion, how much we could benefit from adding each of these parts to our own founding documents and from learning Native American prayers such as this:

We return thanks to our Mother, the Earth, which sustains us.
We return thanks to the rivers and streams which supply us with water.
We return thanks to all herbs which furnish medicines for the cure of our diseases.
We return thanks to the moon and stars which have given to us their light
when the sun was gone.
We return thanks to the sun that has looked upon the Earth with a beneficent eye.
Lastly, we return thanks to the Great Spirit in whom is embodied all goodness,
and who directs all things for the good of her children.
—Iroquois prayer

********************************************
Thanks for visiting. Come again when you can.
Please be kind to each other while you can.