Food For Thought

I left off last Tuesday's blog (November 15, 2011) with this.

As many of the ancients attempted to teach and the American Indians believed and taught,

Respect Mother Earth.

Respect the Great Spirit

Respect our fellow man and woman

Respect for individual freedom

As I see that,

Respect Mother earth, she is who gives us life and nourishes our bodies.

Respect the Great Spirit, that is the whole of where our energy comes from.

Respect our fellow man and woman. The energy that allowed Mother Nature to give us life and gives us nourishment are our father and mother, so we are all brothers and sisters. We are all really one huge family.

Respect for individual freedom. We don't have to agree with all of our brothers and sisters, but we do have the responsibility to respect their beliefs and ideas. That given we have the responsibility too of protecting each other when someone doesn't show respect for others. When one of us does harm to another because of our lack of respect they no longer deserve that respect be given to them. Our respect now, as a community, should be shown by removing that which doesn't respect and refuses to learn to respect.

What really surprised me was that I thought of many things throughout my life. I adopted them as they came to me and seemed to make sense. They helped make my life better and happier.

What has amazed me was finding them in the teachings of ancient philosophers and old cultures. Then when I'd find out about them and read what they had to say I would be really amazed that I could come up with their teachings no my own .

I thought that many of my ponderings were only original to me. I was wrong. People who walked the earth long before had tried to leave their discoveries for us so we too could live better lives. But somewhere in the foolish wisdom of our educational systems we as the human race decided they were not worth teaching.

We in our infinite intelligence decided only we could know better. Just like a teen refusing to hear what old people try to say, we close our ears and minds to wisdom that has been passed down.

What I can't help but wonder is, if we would search out good wisdom and teach that or even use that for teaching in schools, could we possibly help others to not be so lost in their thoughts and thereby make the world a better place.

As a young boy one of my favorite cartoons was Aesop's Fables. If someone could take that and make it into a cartoon to attract young minds, I'm sure some worthy writer could do that with almost any great philosopher.

When something like that replaces Dick, Jane and Spot, or whatever is used today to teach reading, we would be entertaining the youth and educating them, but also be teaching them things that could help as they grow older and life becomes more confusing.

All cultures have great wisdom. All that I've found and read are in the least, very similar. Our ancestors didn't have the luxury of the communication we have today, yet they all came to similar conclusions. To me that is even more proof that we are all the same and come from one family.

I do believe it is time we put aside our petty differences and compare our similarities. It's time we communicate and teach each other what we know so we can learn to accept the petty differences. It's the fear of the unknown that causes us to doubt and think bad about each other. It's calm discussion and learning that will bring us together.