[MD] Intellectual Level

[MarshaV]

   "What do you see here, my friend?  Just an ordinary old cooking pot, black with soot and full of dents"
   "It is standing on the fire on top of that old wood stove, and the water bubbles and moves the lid as the steam rises to the ceiling.  Inside the pot is the boiling water, chunks of meat and bone and fat, plenty of potatoes.
   "It doesn't seem to have a message, that old pot, and I guess you don't give it a thought.  Except the soup smells good and reminds you that you are hungry  Maybe you are worried that this is dog stew.  Well, don't worry.  It's just beef---no fat puppy for a special ceremony.  It's just an ordinary, everyday meal.
   "But I'm an Indian.  I think about ordinary, common things like this pot.  The bubbling water comes from the rain cloud.  It represents the sky.  The fire comes from the sun which warms us all---men, animals, trees.  The meat stands for the four-legged creatures, our animal brothers, who gave of themselves so that we should live.  This steam is living breath.  It was water; now it goes up to the sky, becomes a cloud again.  These things are sacred.  Looking at the pot full of good soup, I am thinking how, in this simple manner, Wakan Tanka takes care of me.  We Sioux spend a lot of time thinking about everyday things, which in our mind are mixed up with the spiritual.  We see in the world around us many symbols that teach us the meaning of life.  We have a saying that the white man sees so little, he must see with only one eye.  You could notice if you wanted to, but you are usually too busy.  We Indians live in a world of symbols and images where the spiritual and the commonplace are one.  To you symbols are just words, spoken or written in a book.  To us they are part of nature, part of ourselves---the earth, the sun, the wind and the rain, stones, trees, animals, even little insects like the ant and grasshoppers.  We try to understand them not with the head but with the heart, and we need no more than a hint to give us this meaning.
   "What to your seems commonplace to us appears wondrous through symbolism.  This is funny, because we don't even have a word for symbolism, yet we are all wrapped up in it.  You have the word, but that is all."  

       (John (Fire) Lame Deer & Ricard Erdoes, 'Lame Deer, Seeker of Visions',PP.107-108)

 
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