What
does 25 year death song mean?
I have to begin by stating plainly that I am not a
person who has claim to treaty rights against the United States government, and
my ancestry in derived of European forebears. I am a native American born in
Indiana, and am an Indian in exactly the
same sense as Judy Garland is in the movies, voluntarily, and a part of the Poohawk Nation of
the Hippie tribe, which has tribal roots reaching back to the time of Alexander
the Great. As I have been with tribes of many nations, together as human beings
I was never made to feel I did not belong, and I have adopted many aspects of
Indian culture in my life and my artwork, and most importantly in my
perception, and in showing respect I am held in turn with respect.
I sing my death song to gain courage when I am resolved
to accomplish an act with unknown outcome. I have no wish or intention to
actually die, or kill or hurt another person particularly; only to have taken the
decision to keep to this path relentlessly, until the Spirit guides me to step off, and death
is with me at every step, spurring my every action as the fluid dance of
impeccable action. Any distraction or deviation to wrong thought or wrong
action may allow death to catch up to me, and steal my advantage.
I have lived my life just as a Jackson Browne medley. Truly I have never
really known just what I’m hoping to find, but as time passes in turns I look
back at my crazy life of freelance monastic service and I reckon it has been
worth living. As the only wealth I possess is whatever benefit others have received
from my own decisions regarding my time and attention day to day in all these searching
years. By the ability to see without thinking, one may know when people give signs of their
suffering. If a person’s suffering is acute
I feel it viscerally, particularly in the nature of what dominant culture calls
‘mental health. ’The system of treating such people is harsh and often
misguided. Kindness is called for, but at points at every person’s path
kindness may be hard and unwanted, but still medicinal.
Thank you Jackson Brown for the compass of a thousand tears of joy.
