| Taking the Next Step —In Praise of Standing in the Middle of Nowhere, Doing Nothing by Mary Kwart One cold January evening, while camping in California’s Mojave Desert, I was listening to radio station KTNN—The Voice of the Navajo Nation—out of Window Rock, Arizona. A woman DJ told a story about her friend’s baby who was just three months old and laughed for the first time—an occasion for ritual celebration among Navajo families. The person who made the baby laugh gives a traditional dinner for the baby and her family. The Navajo believe, she explained, that the ability to laugh sets humans apart from other beings—a baby’s first laughter is a special occasion, to be celebrated. People are laugh-bringers to the earth. The next day while visiting a medicine wheel in the desert and burning sage, it occurred to me that maybe medicine wheels and places of power are to the earth what acupuncture points are to the human body—maybe burning sage in the sand is like earth moxibustion. That would also make humans earth doctors. I have often thought about the utility of humans in the world—about our roles before and after industrialization. I have grown to be ashamed of the acts of humans—particularly the destruction I saw that was caused by the Industrial Age. These feelings were exacerbated by my experiences working for the U. S. Forest Service where the most important job is facilitating resource extraction for private profit regardless of the needs of the earth. At another time I remembered what I had learned in a night class about the culture of the local American Indians. In the central foothills of the Sierra Nevada, where I live, wild potatoes (small edible tubers of the Brodiaes general) were an important part of the native people’s diet. They are not so plentiful anymore. The local Indians explained that as the plants were traditionally gathered, potatoes too small for harvest were carefully separated and re-planted. The results were more healthy plants growing over a larger area and also a greater harvest of wild potatoes. Conscious human use of this plant resulted in it flourishing for both the plant and the human being. They said that the plants grew to expect this behavior from humans and evolved with this as a vital part of its reproductive system. People can be, and have been, unlike the contemporary U.S. Forest Service, earth stewards. As Caleen Sisk-Franco, a Wintu Indian from Northern California says in a video called Sacred Places--Perspectives on Working Together: “We have a special connection to Mother Earth. We don’t just come here to take from her any sort of resources or raw materials. We bring her prayers and we bring her songs. Our elders, my Grams, tell us that there was no wilderness here. That was our job. We took care of Mother Earth. The natural look of what is referred to as “wilderness” was our home, just the way it is the home of these eagles, the home of the wolf, the home of the rabbit. (From my own experience, I remember fire crews fighting lightning fires in the Ansel Adams Wilderness in California’s High Sierra, discovering a huge American Indian Village site at the 9,000 foot elevation. In Rocky Mountain National Park as well, evidence of human occupation extends to very high elevations where there are stone enclosures for vision quests.) Caleen Sisk-Franco goes on to say, “And we all have our jobs to do. And it all works together. If we don’t do our jobs, if we don’t go and burn the underbrush, then the rabbits can’t get through. The deer can’t find the acorn. The wolf can’t build their dens. The eagles can’t come down and get their native foods. This is our job. And when we go and do our jobs, it also includes the singing—singing for a certain area to make it feel good, because it’s used to us being there. It wants us to come there. It needs that for its’ own health, too. Like Grams says, ‘If you don’t go to the spring, the spring becomes sad because it doesn’t see the relative. All of the animals go to the spring—the birds and the wolves and everybody goes to the spring and as should we.’ That’s our job to protect the spring.” Although most contemporary Euro-Americans, including environmental activists, may feel that adopting roles as earth celebrators and laugh-bringers is ludicrous, and, at best, feel inadequate about how to start, questioning as I did whether there could be any role for concerned modern humans more positive than being the canaries in the coal mine. But becoming earth celebrators and laugh-bringers may be the necessary next step in providing the balance and inspiration necessary to take the struggle and evolution to the next level, whatever that may be. I feel it is just as important as being present when you are anywhere—and it doesn’t have to be at 10,00 feet next to a “pristine” mountain lake. The pristine alpine lake, the clear cut, and the tree in the parking meridian are all manifestations of the wild “Other”. Being open and making a small offering of something “back” to the earth, signaling good intentions, is also part of a good start. Standing in the middle of nowhere doing nothing in particular but being present, listening and making a small offering could just be odd enough of an experience for Euro-Americans to provide a small “crack” in our brain so that light and communication can take place. As Canadian songwriter/poet Leonard Cohen has said: “Forget your perfect offering. There’s a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.” And then we start the long process of learning how to really live here. |