Sunday, August 11, 2013

Good Morning Justin...

Letter to my Son
Sunday, 12 August


Grammar


Good Morning Justin…

When did it get complicated being human?  I’m talking groups of people here.  You have to figure from earliest times on it was a challenge to just stay alive.  People thirty thousand years ago were clever but they were still one species in the mix of animals trying to live.  Humans hunted and they were also being hunted.  Maybe they moved about in extended family groups.  They probably ranged as far as they needed so that they could find food.  Running across other groups of humans could amount to an uncertain greeting.  If food was in abundance they might find items to trade.  If times were hard and food was scarce each side would likely feel hostile towards the other.  Groups of people might also want to protect abundant territory so that it is used only by them.  It seems probable they found ways of marking the boundary of land they considered theirs.  Running across a skull mounted on a stake, particularly if it were human, would get anyone’s attention and would be thought of as a threat.  If your group was large in number, or desperately hungry, you are likely to proceed despite the warning.  Large numbers have large needs but they can also overwhelm smaller groups of people.  Ancient people would find security in having large numbers of people on their side.

A man of long ago would view a woman as a mysterious vessel.  She would have the mystique of creating new life.  How magical it is for one person to create another person… and from within.  What a puzzle it is.  Groups of people create words that are necessary to communicate basic information.  What kind of animal did I see?  Where was it?  How many were there?  A few more words and now there are stories that can be told to reveal our thoughts.  Stars are the eyes of the many dead who gather above to watch the progress of their children.  One day we each must join them.  Now is too soon.  Bison Woman has given child in the same time as do the herds that bring forward their calves.  She and the young one must be protected even though she brought great turmoil to the group.  Men with good feeling became angry with one another.  There were wounds.  Bison Woman saw all and she made known her liking.  It mattered little.  Man who mounts Bison Woman gives small thought to her likes.

People that move with herds must live in skins for protection from being cold and wet.  The sun can also be too much.  Insects that live on animals also pester the people that follow herds.  Animals that eat herd flesh find people agreeably filling, as well.  People must drink from the water muddied by the herd.  People, once so very strong, become weak for no known reason and soon must be given back to the earth.  Little people, so new to the group, join the stars at night before they can be of help.  Women must always bring new people but they, too, wear out all too soon. 

We speak more words with each other because they give us new thought.  Thought is magic.  Thought give us fire.  Thought give us tools.  Thought makes difficult life more easy.  Easy life gives happy feeling.  We like words because words give better thought.  Now we hear new thought.  River People do not follow herd.  River People do not live in skins.  River People live in wood.  River People eat much plant.  River People always stay where they always are.  Life seems easy for River People.  We want easy River People life.  River People must go now.

We are surprised.  River People have too much thought.  River People thought not easy.  They do not see eyes of dead overhead at night.  They watch signs in stars that tell them of what is to be.  Stars say time of flood.  Stars say time to put seeds into ground.  Stars say time to gather seeds from plant.  River People talk words of numbers.  They have many number words.  Words are for ears.  They scratch marks.  They make words for eyes.  They talk great magic.  They make magic with numbers.  Numbers come and go.  How do numbers get so big? 

Too many numbers make bad feelings.  Too many words make for bad talk.  Kill animal is quick.  It is happy time.  Seeds are not quick to make plant.  It is not happy time.  There is no good tomorrow for River People.  There is no happy mud.

Love,
           Dad



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