Quote:
Originally Posted by Jim Moonan
Pardon my digression here, but... I wanted to say that I've always been struck by native American expressions. My sense is that there is always a latent spiritual meaning in their simple phrasing. A blending of body and spirit shaped into words. A kind of ancient wisdom formed from long contemplation. A meditative quality that I admire and perhaps even envy.
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You are not mistaken, Jim. Native Americans are a highly poetic race, who communicate less through metaphor, than through symbol -- more difficult to interpret. Interesting, too, you should bring that up. I have just finished "forming up" a centuries-old speech delivered by an Ojibwa priest, officiating at a ceremony which was being attended, observed, and recorded by ethnologists in the employ of the federal government. These were brilliant sociologists, however, they had to request an explanation of the speech afterwards, as they simply could not grasp the symbols of the historical delivery, which the Ojibwa clearly had no problem understanding.
The priest patiently -- and with some amusement -- explained his symbolic usage to these sociologists, who were astonished by the sophistication, as well as the intact condition of what had been handed down by oral tradition, for literally hundreds of years.
Thanks.
Jennifer