Pre Columbian Computer Technology: Still Crazy Useful For Life

 This piece I call 'Even A Heart Of Stone Can Be Broken'

 The rock appeared in my path in 1992 on Nick Martin's ranch near Johnson City, Tejas. I saw my own heart immediately and we we began a conversation.

I think I love you.

You love only yourself.

I think I will have you.

I weigh nearly 4 pounds unpainted.

That Is little enough.

It is quite some distance to camp, and further yet to the truck.

I can bear any burden for my desire.

Fool.

 Indeed rocks may have Spirit.

Also the pelts and skins of our sustanence

share their Spirit to carry us on in life.

The Spirit of our own

the Spirit of all animal, insect, fish and plant life

contribute

to our perceptions and conceptions,

and put this Spirit into our materials

that we use to make Art objects that contain

and convey this dharma to our people

to amuse and inform them of our great

love and compassion.

Persons of all cultures experience suffering from causes beyond physical injury or disease.
Commonly we keep reminders of past and present loves, coups, lessons of life and
even defeats experienced with honor.

If we have nothing to keep these momories alive in us they become like ghosts, and in

time we may come to wonder if they were ever real at all or figments of a

lonesome imagination. Seek out the Steve McQueen version of the films

'Tom Horn' for a touching account of the medicine bag in Native American culture.

A human being might need such medicine on a long journey of quest or discovery that may cover hundreds

of miles and months or even years.

Along the way a person may gather or trade for items that relayed personal meaning

Such tokens may include items that appear as other living spirits, such as plants,

animals, birds, fish or other creatures. Or they may be beads, bits of ochre or other

natural pigments made or found, or gifts recieved from others met.

There are also objects that are totems, things that represent concepts, freedoms and ideas that

are not tangible objects in this world, but are real none the less to human beings.

This depiction might illustrate one such human being's journey. It might be cast to

illustrate a past adventure, or as a plan for the future, or to track the expected progress

of a loved one or an enemy. These lines express my undestanding of the use of these objects in pre Colombian native culture in our land called now the United States of America. Actual

Native Americans may and do hold different interpretations of these objects, and the reader may

take some truth here and modify it to her own purpose.

This is itself the strength and value of Native Cultures that exists still for us to discern.