Page 77 - ECOlogic Book

Ours is not an oral tradition, so we don’t know what we’re doing. Our
respect for the traditions of Native peoples is genuine. We have no wish to
imitate them or co-opt their traditions or our own careless or trivial use.
Rather, we wish to learn from them, to honor them by recognizing the value
of their teachings. We stare into the flames, searching for our story, the one
any of us could tell that would strengthen us all; the one on which we can all
agree.

But nobody says anything. We all just continue to look into the fire. We do
not tell the stories remembered from our youth, not because we no longer
think they are true, but because we know they are no longer adequate.
They do not have have enough to say about situation in which we now find
ourselves. If we are to weave a new fabric with our experience, we will have
to learn a new story as well. Thinking will do no good here. There is no way
to “figure it out.” And so we begin, falteringly at first, groping for words.

We listen. First this one speaks. Then that one. Slowly, a story emerges.
It resonates deep within. Our genes remember that yes, we once were the
dust of stars, that we all, four leggeds, swimmers, creepy crawlers and
winged ones, tree people and rock people and two-leggeds, all share a
common origin. We traveled together for eons before rock became rock and
bird became bird. We were one. Our common destiny led us to our present
state of diversity, each with its essential place in the scheme of things, each
contributing to the whole. “The earth is a living being”, David Spangler tells
us. “Humanity and nature are a symbiotic wholeness; cooperation is valued
more highly than competition; relationship is the essence of reality’ spiritual
and mental experiences are seen as being as valid as physical ones; creation
is an unfolding process in which each individual is a participant and
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contributor.”

“Earth hides its unity in favor of diversity,” another storyteller, Thomas
Berry, reminds us. “The supernovas did not disappear; they are continuing
and in us they have attained a new mode of expression.” And, he continues,
“it is a story of every individual venturing deeper into himself and into the
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universe.”

When fins first appeared on the fish, the universe learned how to swim.
When birds began to fly, the universe experienced flying for the first time.
With the appearance of the human, the eye of reflection emerged, and just

94 IBID (Introduction).

95 Berry, Thomas, “Revising the Past,” Nov., 1985 Tarrytown Letter.

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