As of this writing it is now too many months and too many deaths since I first began to publish Lorraine's Talking Stick. It has grown from my desire to share the discovery of the majesty of Humility and Peace as verbs. This a processes that has come to me late in life beginning during the weeks leading to the March 2003 US invasion of Iraq. Perhaps now the Talking Stick as means to hope and peace is becoming acceptable to greater numbers. Surely the undeniable betrayals, mortification and volumes of blood shed are persuasive. I do hear more and more remonstrances by the public to stop the killing, the torture and the plunder. I wonder if those who seek public office hear the same voices? More on this with time. Now, November 2007, I find myself 2 months into a new adventure demanding that I must consider my personal well being and its place in this wonderful mosaic of life among people. A diagnosis of cancer inevitably brings consideration of mortality. As I take this on, my heart has become filled with joy that the life I have so far lived has been mostly "out there" in service to others. The understandings derived over the years assure me that the world does not end when my life does. I am also coming to understand the terror that drives the narcissist who cannot imagine a universe outside his mind. Gather Here is a page containing a Java applet of images celebrating my first coming together with the wonderful citizens of North Georgia. We have since fallen into disparate niches, each cultivating and supporting the work of democracy, in our own way working for justice and for peace and preparing for the tasks of reconciliation. My impulse to co-mingle the creative and the beautiful with the serious and the grim comes from my experience of my father's love for and work with flowers. He truly recognized man as a generative and generous being and that beauty was an essential element in that. He held a profound understanding that investment in nourishing other life is not creation nor ownership. I am certain much of this was fired in the kiln of having been called upon at too young an age to choose to intentionally practice his forming belief that the only sustainable response to barren darkness and tragedy is not violence nor competitive acquisitiveness; but to replant and to empower the creative. This is a world view I have aspired to and taken for granted for most of the years of my life, never giving recognition to its source nor to the existence of alternative views. I do so now. - wlw "It 's the strength that you share when you are growing."
- J. Baez
"If you hold the talking stick in any community meeting then you can talk for as long as you like about whatever you like and in any way you want. No one can interrupt. You can go for seconds or for days - and some people have - never letting go of the Talking Stick. When you feel you are finished you hand it on to the next in line." ~ Warren Feek * "I feel profoundly African, my roots are deeply African, and the things that I was taught as a child are very important to me...growing up in Africa, you had lots of people around you - cousins, aunts, grandparents and friends of the family - so there always were people to talk to, people to seek advice from, people to play with, and a sense of friendship and love... Patience was very much part of the culture... They talked and talked - you know, the tradition of palaver, you go under the tree and you talk. If you can't solve the problem, you meet the next day and you keep talking till you find a solution... No time management here. This is an ongoing dialogue process......." ~ Kofi Anan ** |
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When I was young the children asked "What have you brought us?"
Now they ask "What will you leave us?" We leave art. All else is repetition.
-- wlw
Photographs by TalkingStick and Sue H.
Text & Graphics by Talking Stick @2003-2007
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November 2007
* Warren Feek March 2004 Drumbeat the E-Mail voice of Communications Initiative. It was inspired by The New Yorker, March 3, 2003, page 58. an article based on an interview with Kofi Annan.
**The is a quotation from an article which may be found at Drumbeat and the Communications Initiative web pages at Communications Initiative.
The author Warren Feek is an inspiration in his commitment to facilitating communication among the diverse cultures and nations of the world.
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