not native fruit

kingsblood royal

I thought I'd be getting off the African themes for a while in my reading, but then my husband brought home a book from the recycling center, in new condition, called "Kingsblood Royal" by Sinclair Lewis.  I've never read Sinclair Lewis, I think his books were probably banned by the Magisterium in my day. (He wrote blockbusters in his own day, like "Elmer Gantry.")   But especially for young people today who want to know what racism was really like in its hey-day, "Kingsblood Royal" is the book to read!

What stands out to me about this book, probably because this was something that deeply affected my mother, and therefore affected me, was the prejudice against 'white negroes,' and I'm reflecting on how the elimination of this category from the world of racism has changed the playing field - in favor, actually, of those elite who want to keep the social structure the way it is, with 'blacks' on the bottom!  (Actually, I feel that Native Americans are even more 'on the bottom' than blacks, but with with all the attention right now on places like 'Ferguson', I think this is the moment to focus on prejudice and injustice towards blacks.)

There isn't much sympathy on either side of the black-white divide for the 'white negroes' of Olde, but they certainly suffered, and I don't think anyone can compare 'sufferings.'  Who suffers more?  The person who can't walk because of arthritis, or the person who can't walk because of diabetes? (amputations)  Some people do suffer more than others, for sure, but that doesn't diminish the suffering of the others, does it?  The 'white negroes' had their share of suffering, and as far as my experience tells me, even after they had 'passed' into the white mainstream, the ones I grew up around certainly supported the civil rights movement, despite opposition from co-workers, neighbors and so on - although, again in my experience, most of the neighbors were also former 'white negroes,' Native Americans or recent immigrants from war-torn lands.  Some of the latter were prejudiced against blacks, no doubt about it - but their level of petty prejudice, though it can do a lot of damage, is nothing compared to the power of prejudice in the hands of the monied elite.

To get the real skinny on race in America, read John A. Powell's recent book "Racing to Justice" which explains the structure of our social system, and why 'blacks' (ie the darkest of our human family) 'have to' remain on the bottom.  It is grim, discouraging reading, but nothing will change if we hide our heads in the sand like ostriches.  We've got to look at it, at least. 

For me, this book helps to explain why our attempts to integrate the middle class seem to be resulting in a shrinking of the middle class. Sobering reading, for sure.

More on "Kingsblood Royal" to follow - I'm only about half way through the book.

north pole sunset

 

"This is the sunset at the North Pole with the moon at its closest point last week.
a scene you will probably never get to see in person, so take a moment and enjoy God at work at the North Pole.
And, you also see the sun below the moon, an amazing photo and not one easily duplicated. 
You may want to pass it on to others so they can enjoy it.
The Chinese have a saying that goes something like this:
'When someone shares with you something of value, 
you have an obligation to share it with others!' 
I just did.. Your turn"

A friend sent this to us.  Isn't it beautiful? 

I like the passage too - reminds us of just how much God doesn't need us - God's been having fun creating effects like this for untold millenia.  I've heard it said that we are here because God wanted His or Her handiwork to be appreciated.  My question is - How good a job are we doing at that?  Is that really our top priority?

new year of the rabbit

Year of the Metal Rabbit, to be 'exact' (a 'nice' 'metallic' 'quality' - in fact, all of 'these words' are 'metal' words).  I picture the Metal Rabbit on a mountainside beneath the full moon.  The Rabbit in the Moon, the presence of minerals and metals in the mountain, the stars - a cold white light in the heavens - all of these are associations for Metal and for Rabbit.  Metal can be harsh, precise, exacting, but the Metal Rabbit is subtler and less heavy-handed than  Metal Tiger, more decorous, polite, and diplomatic.  I like my Rabbits to have a sense of humor about them, a certain warmth and personable quality, hence the slightly comic grin.  In the case of people born in the Year of the Rabbit, this friendliness is more an appearance than a reality.  They do care about others, at least theoretically, but they are intensely private and like a lot of alone-time.  They will be solicitous and do things for others but usually with a certain quality of reserve.  They'll create a nurturing pleasant atmosphere, which they offer to near and dear ones, yet need to enjoy on their own as well. 

So, how does my New Year begin?  Well, without my special friend, Risa, who passed away on January 22nd.  It was indeed very much expected.  One might even say she did very well in terms of lasting as long as she could.  She passed on with her values intact, and that is saying a helluva lot.  She was a magical person, and I would expect she will be missed.  But it must also be said that she left a legacy of positivity all around her, and I'm sure that will help her soul-survivors to continue in her foot-steps.  She taught the dance-steps, and now it's up to us to continue the dance, perhaps to improvise and embellish her steps.  I'm thinking especially of her fifteen year old son.

What else?  Working a lot, but enjoying it, so that's okay.  Gotta bring in those clams, but it can be fun at least some of the time. 

lughnasa 2009

today is lughnasa, the celtic holiday celebrating the Descent of the Sun.  Summer turns the corner today and the Sun begins its yearly trek back toward its Nadir. 

for me, August has always had a particularly golden-hue, moving towards the colors of Autumn.  Enjoy the sweet melancholy of the mellow End of Summer season.  What's not to love?

primordial fourth of july

my partner, g, and I went for a hike this morning in wildcat canyon park.  i won't name the trail, because i don't want it to be swarmed.  it was pure magic.  the trail was embedded in a tangle of eucalyptus, flowering buckeye, live oak and bay trees, many of them slithering across the ground like mossy snakes.  their ancient boles were twisted, gnarled, buckled, gapped and crazed.  We came upon a large hole in a tree with a shelf of scalloped white tree lichen inside the size of a cake-dish, and the shiny sap-sided hole was abuzz with busy honey-bees. 

As we hiked along the trail with blue sky visible in a thin path directly above our heads, we occasionally noticed brightness in the distances beyond the trees - sunshine on the grassy hills around us, dry in july and brilliant with the sheen of sun on straw.  Under our feet we turned up ocean-rolled black stones and the layer directly below the surface of the trail was pure sand. 

Later on our stroll we came upon a sort of natural amphitheatre on a miniature scale.  The lower half of the terraces were papered in large deep green ferns and black rocks.  The upper layer was dark with criss-crossed and roiling boles and boughs of trees with heavy canopies of leaves.  Through the ferns and boles of the thick tree cover roamed unfettered cows, eight of them, some of them with young.  We never think of cows as primordial, but of course they are - sacred in many cultures - and these beautiful bovine presences, gigantic and rounded, surrounded by forest, ferns and vines, seemed ancient and majestic in my eyes.  Black, chestnut brown with white, golden and pale, they were slowly, gracefully making their way along a narrow switchbacked trail down the arboreal slope to the creek below for water.  A community, yet each one clearly individual in its motion and consciousness.

In the warm air above us, buteos hovered for many minutes before flapping briefly to move on in their hunt.  We saw a group of five wild turkeys, two adults and what looked like three teenagers, in the brush.  On our return walk we sniffed the sweetly fragrant blossoms of the buckeye tree standing near the short overgrown bridge across the tiny creek near the trailhead.  Our noses pressed on either side of the blossom, it only made sense to kiss beneath the blooms.  What a sweetness~!  You should definitely try this sometime.  I recommend it. 

crimson christmas

We've had an unusually colorful Christmas season this year due to the combination of drought and a couple of cold snaps.  Normally rain and wind would have denuded all the trees on our streets that aren't evergreen, but this year almost every neighborhood was decked out in crimson.

 

 

 

 

iroquois covenant chain

I'm reading a book called "The Ambiguous Iroquois Empire" by Francis Jennings.  Jennings was a native of Pottsville, Pennsylvania, where my relatives lived in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries as well - the relatives on my mother's mother's side.  My intuition on this subject seems to be very strong, because I have wondered just how many people from that region might be white-Indian mixt, and I've discovered that our line seems to have been like that. Even though the social division between 'white' and 'Indian' remained rigidly fixed, some individuals must have felt the injustice of the system and were eager to rectify it - and Francis Jennings seems to have been one of these people.  My mother certainly felt the injustice of it too, but I must say she was never much of a freedom-fighter.  She was more of a healer, although I sometimes think her solutions were not always the best.

Anyway, the book deals with the Iroquois collaboration with British colonies and with other tribes.  The whole social reality of that period of America was far more complex than we are led to believe in history books, even the newer ones.  I admire anyone who can thread their way through all of that history, let alone make a decent interpretation of it. 

I've been reflecting on the value-system I was handed with no labels attached, and have been trying to identify its sources.  I found this passage interesting:

"Theirs (the Mohawks') was a dream of empire.  But!  Not empire as conceived by Europeans.  The Iroquois thought themselves the wisest of Indians, pointing to their League as evidence, and thus rationalized their role of hegemony over other tribes.  It was for the latters' own good - not an unfamiliar argument among imperialists.  But the Iroquois also generally took seriously their role as protectors of tributaries and only rarely debased their power to exploit the weaker tribes.  No multitudes groaned under the hobnailed mocassin.  The cultural trait, widespread in North American Indian cultures, that forbade capital accumulation and demanded of leaders that they impoverish themselves for the benefit of their people was integral to Iroquois society; and it made impossible an empire of wealth and exploitation, quite apart form the handicap of inadequate technology.  Whoever heard of emperors in rags?  (Yet) Mohawk chieftains were seen so, even at the height of their tribe's ascendancy.  (Historian) Morgan deplored the Iroquois lack of 'the desire to gain,' which had 'never roused the Indian mind.'  Without it, he thought, Indians could never achieve the civilization of 'our race.'"  (94-95)

Obviously, Jennings views 'the civilization of "our race"' with a jaundiced eye.  And I'm sure there are pros and cons on both sides.  I'm writing this just for a comparison of values and models.  Words here function more or less as puzzle pieces, or better yet, as directionary signs in a process leading to an unknown destination. 

My attention is caught by this passage because it describes a more cooperative form of social organization.  After other tribes surrendered to the Iroquois, they were 'brought in' to the League as 'younger brothers' or 'adopted brothers' or 'nephews,' depending on the type of relationship that would now exist between the new member tribe and the others.  So, it was a very collaborative arrangement and not exploitive in the way colonial attachments functioned towards new 'members' of the empire.

month of rabbit and 'awakening insects'

I love the name of the chinese half-month that begins today: month of awakening insects.  I have a Chinese therapeutic-music CD entitled 'Awakening Insects' and it is the most vibrant, energizing yet somehow ethereal piece of music I've ever heard.  Really, quite unlike anything else, and yet it vividly brings to mind those moments in nature when a chorus of insect-singing begins.

Of course, the awakening of the insects represents the return of life after winter's sleep.  The preceding half-month is called 'Spring Rains.'  What follows the Spring Rains?  The up-burgeoning of life!  But the return of life is still in its early stages.  Yang 'gains influence' as Yin begins to decline. 'Cold' has become 'cool,' with occasional slightly warm days.

This is the month associated with the Earthly Branch known as 'Rabbit.'  "The Rabbit is linked to the colour green, which is associated with the season of spring.  It is the colour of new life, tranquillity and relaxation.  It is said that dreams will end well if they feature the colour green since it is a lucky and influential colour."  (p. 19, Chinese Astrology, by Man-Ho Kwok - this is the one book to get if you are at all interested in investigating Chinese nature-wisdom.  I wouldn't call it 'astrology' since it has virtually nothing to do with the stars.  Unlike western astrology, this system really relies on seasons and time of day, basically with placement in space and time.  They do use a few fixed stars in one branch of the system.  Rather than 'Astrology' the 'Four Pillars' is more like a sort of 'Feng Shui' of the person.  I will be posting on Four Pillars soon.)

Anyway, interesting that we also celebrate the Rabbit at this time of year, here in the West, right?  And that we chose 'green' as the color of our money.

I've introduced a new category with this post: dao and chinese.  As some of you may know I have been an acupuncturist for the past 19 years, and a student of daoism.  I've scaled back my healing work in the past two years and have been doing less demanding work as a personal assistant/elder companion, which harks back to my earlier life.  I guess I must be a born caregiver, can't seem to get away from it.  But I am definitely pulled by this daoist system of healing and would like to do more with it in some way, shape or form.  So, one step in that direction may be to begin sharing this part of myself on this blog.

fourth of july

The weather approached warm today, but in the evening, before the sun has begun to set, it is already cooling down and I need to put on a sweater.  It's been such a quiet, free-feeling day, and now as I take my walk, it's one of those evenings when every object is distinct and colors are intense.  I'm especially observing the plant-life in the neighborhood, and every leaf and blossom glows with its own unique ontological fire. 

Later, fireworks bloom across the sky at a great distance from us.  We notice them in passing, returning to our books, the front door open to the night air, to the periodic ingress and egress of the cat, to the sound of possums scurrying through dry rhododendron leaf-litter. 

In "Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Novel" Jane Smiley writes, "A novel is a hypothesis.  A novelist shares with a scientist the wish to observe.  A novelist also shares with a scientist a partial and imperfect knowledge of the phenomenon he wishes to observe.  And so both novelist and scientist say, 'what if?'"

the vanishing indian?

In my search for reading materials relating to my dna test and my memories, I've found a 1962 book called 'Almost White' by Brewton Berry. It could have been titled 'the Vanishing Indian.'  In fact, his first chapter bears that name.  I certainly do wish there were someone like Brewton Berry around right now for me to talk to. 

One thing I begin to realize as I do all this tri-racial reading, is how much racial and ethnic categories and classifications change over time.  As I said in my last post, history is a regional thing, and there are time-regions too.  People felt differently in the past, and some of the things that were 'issues' then, aren't now.  Although perhaps there are still issues around race and ethnicity in our country with its ongoing immigration, they just aren't quite the same issues.  When we look at other countries where there is all-out war among ethnic factions, I think we can't really believe that 'this sort of thing' is no longer a problem on earth. 

In any case, the world of Brewton Berry is the world I grew up in - although I grew up in the northern version, which I regret was not covered in the book.  So it's up to me, or to someone else with more scholarly ambitions, to reconstruct it.  In the meantime, I can extrapolate from this book to my own early situation.

Most of the writing on the subject of 'tri-racials' focuses on the American South where race issues were formerly perceived to be greatest.  Many tri-racial people had to live in isolated communities with varying degrees of mixing, usually with whites.  For example, today's Melungeons test out on average via DNA to be usually 90-95% European in ancestry, with the remaining 5-10% Native American, African or some combination of each.  This is because they intermarried a lot with whites.

In Pennsylvania, mixed marriages were legal during certain periods of time, like during the Revolutionary War, and prior to 1723, so it's a somewhat different picture.  During the earliest periods, 1500-1600's, there was plenty of mixing without anyone worrying too much about it, until later.  African and European indentured servants were often on a par in terms of their servitude in those days, but soon after differences arose, mostly about how long their terms of service were.  Further on, blacks began to serve longer and longer terms, and after a Virginia uprising by a mixed group of freed indentured servants, the idea of lifelong servitude grew in appeal among landowners, leading to what we now think of as 'plantation-slavery.'  I found this out by watching a documentary called 'Africans in America.'  It's very good.  I recommend it, if only for the beautiful music and photography.