Crow Speaking to Braves

In the Native traditions, it is the Crow that is most often the wisest and most knowing of all creatures, and when the headmen of the tribe wish to be advised, they seek out the Crow, and listen to his wisdom. It is the Crow that teaches the tribe about war, and about when to make peace, the Crow that tells the tribe where good hunting is, and when it is time to move on.

In my latest career as a teacher I have noticed more than ever that our society has stopped talking to our elder members. We rely on the Internet for our wisdom, the television for our insight, and we take these as irrefutable truths, as our Crow. We communicate with each other through electronic media, be it Blackberries or cell phones, which through the need to conserve "minutes" distill our language to groups of three or four consonants that make some World War II codes look simple.

What is lost? We have lost the vital thread that binds our generations, the knowledge that is passed from grandmother and grandfather, to mother and father, to sister and brother. There are literally millions of things not covered in school, things essential to living in the World, that we learn from our parents; when to wear a tie, what not to say at a funeral, how to blow your nose, where to put your money in your wallet, where to put your wallet, how to keep a checkbook, how to file your taxes, how often to dust and where to put the penny to tell when it is time...

These are things that the Crow used to tell his Children, the Tribes that Slumber. We are not listening anymore.

I find myself surprised to turn and find my brother and I as "senior diplomats" in life; we were just children ourselves, it seems. Now we are moving into the last half-century of life, that part I had been taught to fear and abhor, as I thought it meant that the end of productive living was near. Maybe. I think now it just means my feathers are turning black, and I have earned the right to talk to the Braves of my tribe, to give them some of the wisdom I have learned along the way. I know they will not get it by speaking with me personally, so perhaps this blog can be the modern substitute for that conversation, which would have taken place in such an unhurried, loving atmosphere so long ago.

Here is the Crow, Speaking to Braves....