Genie wrote:* First of all if Shaudawn is wrong with some of his comments it doesn't erase the right things he said. ...
Thank you, Genie. You make a good observation there and throughout your post. I would like to say that my views and opinions are thawts I put out there, and my attitude is that if they stick, then there's something to that. If they don't, then they are just smoke and ash and are thus harmless. I don't try to win arguments. I will explain and defend my thawts, but if they have meaning, it's not because I said them, but because they resonate in some people. If they don't, then ignore them. But if they do, in some way, then pay attention, slow down, and let us examine why that is.
I have a different way of doing things. I'm creative and weird, and I take both as compliments. I grew up in a story-telling culture, but it is a non-Western way of telling stories. Let me explain by...guess what...a story:
There was an anthropologist who came to study a particular indigenous tribe, and he wanted to get their version of how the world was created. The elders asked, "Are you sure you want to know?" The anthropologist insisted enthusiastically. "It will be a long story," they said. "Are you patient enough?" The anthropologist assured them he had studied for long hours at a time. "The way our people speak is not the way of your people, are you sure?" The anthropologist assured them he had taken many courses in linguistics and was ready. A fourth time, they said, "Each of our elders will tell our story. Are you ready for it?" The anthropologist was delighted because that way, he could get the whole truth. "Yes! I keep telling you, I'm ready, so let's get on with it!" he said.
So, the elders came for him and said, "We are going to tell you how the world was made." They took him to the place where stories are told and told him their story about how the world was created from water, and of the animals and spirits. The story took all night, and in the morning the anthropologist was very tired, but grateful. His notebook was filled with words.
But that evening, the elders came for him and said, "We are going to tell you how the world was made." The anthropologist, still tired, was confused, but he agreed. "This must certainly be an epic," he said. And so the elders took him to the place where stories are told and told him their story about how the world was created and how the people were in a deep hole in the earth and climbed up, up, up through four worlds to get to the one they were in now. The anthropologist was confused. It wasn't an addition as he had thought. It completely contradicted the previous story. But he wrote it all down regardless, and in the morning after another long night, he thanked them and fell into bed.
But later, the elders came for him and said, "We are going to tell you how the world was made." "But you already told me twice. There's more?" The elders shook their heads and simply said, "No, not more." The anthropologist was getting more confused, but he was curious, as most Western scientists are, so he went with them to the place where stories are told. Once there, the elders told him the story of how the people from the sky came from the great star gardens and how the beings of the clouds made the earth and the snow in the place where they live but not how snow was made in other places. The anthropologist wrote it all down, but he had grown confused and tired and frustrated because it was all making less and less sense to him. He was looking for the facts to what he considered their Genesis myth. But it didn't make sense. When he got back to his tent, he grumbled confused and concluded that these people were just so backwards and stupid because they couldn't tell their stories right. They were all contradicting one another.
On the fourth night, the elders came for him and said, "We are going to tell you how the world was made." The anthropologist trudged to the place where stories are told, but when the elders began to tell him about how the people were in darkness and needed fire and asked the animal spirits to get light and sunshine for them, he interrupted them and said, "You are not making any sense! None of your stories work! They all contradict one another. You can't make the world out of water on moment, then earth the next, then air, and then the fire and animal spirits! Where is your Garden of Eden? Where is your snake and apple? Where is your Gilgamesh and Osiris and your Odin? You people don't know how to tell a good story! I can't take this back to the academy, they'll laugh at me because it's not logical. And none of them have a proper ending. Just tell me, which one of these origin stories is true!"
When the anthropologist collapsed in frustration, the oldest grandmother spoke quietly. "They all are," she said. "We keep taking you back here to the place where stories are told because you haven't listened to find the end."
Biin Hejj: I don't get it.
Me: Hello, my sacred clown. How are you this morning?
Biin: Decidedly mixed, oh Writer-of-Profuse-Vagueness! And a bit perturbed because you're stealing my spotlight. How am I going to perform in this post? Huh? *He pokes at me using an accordion, which isn't easy to do but yet he does it and I'm a bit annoyed by it*
Me: Probably not this one, but we have something many do not these days.
Biin: Chocolate-covered donuts with sprinkles on top?
Me: Well, I was going to say patience, but...for you, why not?
Biin: Goodie! Bring on the Earl Grey, my boy, and we shall toast your ...erm... story thingy whatever.
Me: I could use your help for one little bit, though. Do you mind?
Biin: *He jumps up like a loaded jack-in-the-box liberated in all its springy conversion of potential energy into kinetic* DO I MIND?
DO I MIND? Do penguins arrange elaborate dinner parties for walruses as a way to make inroads into political office?
Me: Well, not really, but from you, I'll take that as a 'yes'. Yes?
Biin: *He shakes his head* Yes. What do you need me to do?
Me: Easy. Just be yourself. I'm going to illustrate something here, and by doing that, I'm going to pretend to be a police officer that just pulled you over for a broken tail light. You think you can do that?
Biin: *He tries to salute, and it ends up looking more like he's hailing a cab in downtown Mumbai during high tea.* Everything's going to be
okay!
Me: *moseys up to Biin's window, knocks on it* License and registration please.
Biin: I REFUSE TO TAKE A BREATHALYZER TEST! YOU NEED A WARRANT TO CHECK FOR DEAD BODIES IN THE TRUNK!Me: Thank you, Biin. I knew I could count on you.
Biin: I WANT MY LAWYER AND FREE PHONE CALL!!!Me: No, Biin...we're done. You've helped me illustrate something.
Biin: What? *He gulps down the tea and snarfs the donut as he tries to get his breathing under control."
Me: What do you think that police officer is going to do now? Put yourself in her or his shoes for a moment.
Biin: Hey, I look pretty good in uniform! *He wiggles his eyebrows at me provocatively until he realizes I'm still waiting for an answer.* Oh, well, you'd bet your sweet sexy ass I'm going to search that car and make him walk a straight line while reciting the alphabet backwards while touching his nose with his left foot.
Me: I'm pretty sure that's not how it's done, but I think you get the point.
To use the words of Bill Shakespeare's
Taming of the Shrew, "Methinks she doth protest too much." In my experience, there are at least three kinds of people who are going to react strongly and negatively to certain things people like me say or write:
- The first are the ones who see strong words and jump at them in bitter, strong protest much like a parakeet attacks a mirror. There is something there that needs to be paid attention to. Some molesters, pedophiles, and others with psychotic tenancies act like this, for instance, even if there is really no explicit reason to. I am writing this to those left behind: be careful of these kinds of people, especially in the real world.
- The second kind are people who, using our illustration, aren't drunk and don't have anything in their trunk except old newspapers, but who are so focused on themselves and their reputation instead of what is really being said that they jump into a horrible defensive attack mode. To those left behind: be careful of these kinds of people, but for a different reason.
- The third kind of reactive response are those who, having some kind of political or personal agenda--consciously or unconsciously--and who usually are parroting the pundits on an issue they are associating with. Instead of paying attention to what is really being said, they jump to defend whatever their god demands of them. To those left behind: be careful of these kinds of people, especially if they work for the first two kinds; and contemplate what kinds of gods are acting in the world and in ourselves to evoke all of our responses.
The tactic of "if it doesn't fit, you must acquit" is for lawyers in a court of law, and is a tactic now used too much as the false antidote to the overabundance of fake news and the like. In engineering, there are failsafe structures and factors of safety not because it is proved that some catastrophic failure is proven to happen, but because on the one chance that something does, there is a safety net. In cases of social predators, you can't wait until someone gets victimized and blame the victim. You question patterns. Watch. Think of how to make sure there is a failsafe, and if asked for your background check or ID, it's because we're trying to keep people safe, not because we specifically suspect you are a bad person...unless you are... fruits, not just proofs, because even facts can be arranged to tell a story, yet beware of bad apples.
Biin: So, that's a '
no' on my performing this post?
Me: No. Not this post. Maybe some other time. We've got patience and ability to reflect on things. I do wonder, however, who you would use your free phone call on.
Biin: *He grins like an egret who just discovered the joys of league bowling night* Iktome! I would have called Coyote, but he totally botched up my last case and I had to spend the night in the drunk tank.
Me: Say good night, Biin.
Biin: Good night, Biin!