i mentioned in my last post that as we looked at headdresses in prairie edge, isaac started thinking through how he might make a headdress with feathers from the next turkey he harvests {in the spring}.
as i was telling ben this, i was struck with how isaac looked at an artwork, a creation, and it struck a chord with him. he didn't look at it as something that some other kind of people would make. a headdress is something that people make. a particular headdress is something that a particular person made. a person who hunts. a person who has an appreciation for and a connection with nature. a person who enjoys making something aesthetically pleasing and dramatic and useful. a person like isaac.
on our way home, as we talked about the artwork, and isaac again mentioned making a headdress, maddie had brought up something about "columbus day" and was remarking again how ridiculous it is that there has been a day to celebrate someone who thought it was acceptable to cut people's hands off and tie them 'round their necks as punishment for not meeting quotas of gold extraction. i told the kids that i had just learned about the george rogers clark statue in charlottesville, va. we talked about said statue. isaac said that some of the kids in his class made some really rude comments about native americans in class on monday. "why do people talk like that, mom?" he asked me. well, someone passes on thought processes and ideas. for some reason there are and have always been groups of people who think that they are better and more deserving and more human even than every other people group. i don't know why. why oh why don't people see other people simply as people. as i was talking, isaac broke in with, "i don't care what color your skin is, or what your hair looks like, or what t-shirt you wear, or who you voted for. you are a person."
yes. you are a person.
we will work at speaking up, most often gently, but sometimes forcefully, to remind our neighbors {those we come in contact with and converse with} that people are people.
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{the first two photos are mine. the three together are from this blog post.}
