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Pastimes : Don't Ask Rambi -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Maurice Winn who wrote (65926)	11/27/2004 10:39:09 PM
From: Crocodile	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 71178

Since writing that post earlier today -- about exclusion, religion, seeking refuge from those who would harm us -- I spent the afternoon pondering about these topics while hiking over new fallen snow in a forest north of where I live. The following will probably sound a little disjointed and perhaps hard to follow, but seems somehow connected to my post from earlier today. I got to thinking about how religion and so-called morality don't actually have a heck of a lot to do with being just plain ethical. From there, I began thinking of what it is that makes us ethical, and a lot of that has to do with being able to see both sides of a problem, and of being able to put ourselves in another's shoes to understand the effects of our actions. In my own family, much of this was taught, not through religion, but through songs like the "Stay in your own backyard" song, which was not only meant to comfort, but to also teach one not to be cruel to others. When my grandmother wanted to teach us to tolerate annoying little brothers, she used to sing a real tear-jerker of a song about two little boys who decide to drown their dog because he's getting old and in the way -- but then one of the boys slips and falls in the river and the dog saves him. The moral of this story was that even when you find someone or something annoying, you should still love it and not want it to come to harm. (Btw, I still remember all of these songs and sang this one to Mr. Croc while we were out hiking today). Many Native North American and Inuit stories "teach" in the same way -- but it's interesting what it is that they teach. Most stories have to do with teaching one to respect elders, respect parents, to share food, not to steal, don't be greedy, etc... For example, the story of how the Chipmunk got its stripes, is really a story about children (chipmunks) who misbehave and pester their grandmother (owl woman) so much that she finally grabs them by their backs with her claws. These stories are full of great stuff like this. Of course, one of the first things Europeans did once they came to North America was to attempt to stamp out Native traditions and religion and replace these with their own "superior" belief system. Having had Native friends who suffered greatly under the residential school system here in my country -- being physically punished for speaking in their own language -- one friend becoming so frightened of speaking that she still stutters terribly at 50+ years of age... well.. thinking on all of this, I come back to how it is that one group of people can think that they know more about being religious or moral than another group, when they do not even understand the culture of others and what it is that those people value. Anyhow, coming back to stories -- I think that somewhere along the line, the importance of our stories has been lost. And what a confusing mess it is to have been raised hearing stories of being kind, respectful, of sharing, not being greedy and wanting more than you really need, and so on, only to be confronted by modern society with its clawing and scrabbling to "win" and be rich and famous, and to have it all. Is it any wonder that children raised in the old ways would have great difficulty functioning within this society? One further digression -- but one which seems somehow relevant to the above. This afternoon I got to thinking about what our stories are here in Canada -- the stories that inform us of who we are and what our values should be. In turn, that set me to thinking about television -- not that I'm much of a tv watcher as I'm not -- but yet I wonder whether our "made in Canada" television programming has had some hand in validating our Canadian psyche -- and did we make it, or did it make us (no doubt, Foucault would have had a good answer for that). Rather than trying to explain what that impact has been, I'm just going to post a link to a summary of "The Beachcombers" -- a hugely popular drama which ran for 19 seasons up here from 1972 to the 1990. To me, the popularity of this show probably says something about what it is to be a Canuck. I can't put this into words very well, but this is pretty much who we are and where we're coming from. museum.tv So, what other stories make us who we are? -croc