Our books are our grandparents

Far above the golden valley

After a windy, rainy night on Grasshopper Pass, our pilgrimage to see the golden larches of the North Cascades was successful and made special by sunlight coming through the unique deciduous conifers that can light a whole mountainside, truly one of nature's most beautiful spectacles.

A pilgrimage is a journey, usually a long one, to a sacred place as an act of devotion. And visiting the larches has become a annual pilgrimage for us. What we find is good, wild and sacred, and the trip made me think about what for me is sacred, a word that denotes something secured from violation or infringement and worthy of veneration.

Growing up, I listened a lot of stories from my grandfather, also worthy of veneration. as he inspired respect. My grandfather's stories marked me more than I know. I carry my grandparents within me and the stories they shared with me are sacred. And though we're different, from different times with different perspectives, we share some unquestioned assumptions.




Unlike most Native American societies, like the Inupiaq, I did not grow up in the same house as my grandparents. But I had books, music, movies, TV, and these all made me, just like my grandparents.

In The Practice of the Wild, Gary Snyder notes that in western society our books are our grandparents. They are the stories, the mythology that make us. He is making a point about how Americans frequently see themselves as solitary thinkers who come from independent thought. "In this there is no real recognition that grandparents, place, grammar, pets, friends, lovers, children, tools, the poems and songs we remember, are what we think with. Such a solitary mind--if it could exist--would be a boring prisoner of abstractions. With no surroundings there can be no path, and with no path one cannot become free." Meanwhile, other cultures recognize that they are connected to those who came before them, the trees, the rivers, their myths. As Snyder notes, "No wonder the parents of the Eskimo children of the whole Kotzebue Basin posted the 'Inupiaq Values' in their schools." Earlier he notes the Inupiaq values listed on the wall of a classroom in Kobuk, Alaska:

HUMOR
SHARING
HUMILITY
HARD WORK
SPIRITUALITY
COOPERATION
FAMILY ROLES
AVOID CONFLICT
HUNTER SUCCESS
DOMESTIC SKILLS
LOVE FOR CHILDREN
RESPECT FOR NATURE
RESPECT FOR OTHERS
RESPECT FOR ELDERS
RESPONSIBILITY FOR TRIBE
KNOWLEDGE OF LANGUAGE
KNOWLEDGE OF FAMILY TREE

In a hyper-pluralistic society, it's more challenging to come up with a set of values that truly defines us as a group, but the list made me think of my own values, many of which mirror that of the Inupiaq:

CURIOSITY
HONESTY
LIBERTY
EQUALITY
HUMANITY
COLOR
SPIRITUALITY
HUMOR
SHARING
HUMILITY
HARD WORK
AVOID CONFLICT
REAL FOOD
REAL PEOPLE
DEPTH
BUDDIES
RESPECT FOR NATURE
RESPECT FOR OTHERS
RESPECT FOR ELDERS
RESPECT FOR STORIES
RESPECT FOR MUSIC






Sometime a year ago or so I came up with my 3 mantras for life on this planet and they're also worth sharing: 1) Be Here Now; 2) Be Kind to Yourself; 3) Remember: We're all going through our own shit--please be kind to others and give them the respect they deserve.