I'm going to get hated on for this, but that's ok with me. There is plenty about me to hate so one more thing doesn't matter much. This has been something that has been weighing pretty heavy on my mind for a long time.
Nothing, not a place or an object is more sacred than life. That does not sound necessarily radical but I am saying that there is absolutely nothing more sacred than life. Life of a human, life of an animal and the life of our planet.
No Mosque, Synagogue, Church, Temple, rock, mountain, body of water or anthing that a person has made is more sacred than life. No one is more sacred than the other, The pope is no more sacred than the Dali Lama or you. I and you are no more sacred than the squirrel in the tree or the eagle in the air.
I can grant there are things that should be venerated and respected because of the importance that we place upon them. In our religion the pipe is considered sacred as is the drum and certain ceremonies. As a person who participates in ceremonies and can personally attest to the power of the drum and the pipe and their healing ability I do consider these objects to be imbued with divine purpose. That's the rub, they are divine to me and those of us who practice this way because we place the importance to our spiritual life into them. I will say that as someone who has a drum, both personal and group, and a personal pipe. I see these as what they are. They are tools that were expressly given to us to use in order to RE-LINK to the spirit, to the Creator of all natural things. The thing that brought me back into the fold, so to say, was the drum. I met some Indians at school and they insisted that I come to a pow wow and it was when I heard the drum, I mean I sat and listened to it, the rhythm and the vocables that I felt a tug. Considering myself spiritual much more than any religion, I recognized this tug as a spiritual thing. This was a pull to come back that I only felt once before and that was when I first prayed after a number of years of not paying any attention to God. The drum has been used to bring so many of us back to our ways that it's profound impact on my family and friends and people can not be measured by any manner known to man.
I have told my wife that I would absolutely love to go on a trip that is offered that is a "biblical tour". I would love to but I know there would be a lot of evangelical Christians and I have no tolerance for them, I would love to see the sacred Mosque! That would be awesome, I would lvoe to see these areas that are sacred to so many Billions of people. Just like I would like to got to Dharamasala and see where the Dali Lama lives. I am not a practitioner of these religions I can still appreciate what others find sacred. I think that the Bible is an outdated book filled with contradictions, violence and Hebrew fairy tales but I would never physically harm or desecrate a Bible, Torah or Quran. As a matter of fact I have copies of all the holy books in my home and i have read each of them. What I don't find sacred does not give me any cache to discredit it as useless. These books, like our drum and sacred bundles and ceremonies are still nothing but guides and tools meant for us to use in order to connect with The Creator.
They are still just things. They are still just places. I stay confused as to why some think that some areas are more "sacred" than others. What makes the earth from 8 mile and Jefferson LESS sacred than the earth on the Temple Mound? Earth herself is sacred, all of her. Just like my head is not more me than my torso. The Creator is not into real estate ventures and so to designate a place as more sacred than another is contradictory. The Universe is anything but contradictory. The pope is not more anything than you or me. Your leaders, minister, preacher, deacon or whatever designation you put on people can not be more than you and me. Doesn't the bible say that God loves all of us equally? If that is the case and I believe it is, then there are no 'chosen' people. There are people. End of sentence.
When we take our eyes away from this truth, That people are just that, then it opens room for us to damage one another, it leaves it easy for people to be labeled as less. As "savage with no soul" as we were called or as 3/5th human as they used as an excuse to treat us as chattel slaves. How many millions of Black people were murdered by King Leopold because he convinced his army that they were not as human or as important as the land they lived on? Hell that is our story here. 90 plus million of us were wiped out between 1492 and 1927. How and why? Land and the people were convinced that we were not as human as them. Something was more important than life.
I am talking about life, animal life included. You can tell a lot about a people in how they treat animals. Since I have adopted rabbits my outlook on treating animals and even eating animals has changed. I still eat meat, I'm an Indian for God's sake there is no changing that, but I find myself more aware of the spirit within animals. It is as important as mine, It has a purpose as much as mine. It is as sacred as mine.
Am I sacrilegious when I say that life is more important than any Mosque, Synagogue, Pipe, Drum, temple or area? I can't be. We can say that God has designated these places and things as sacred but the fact remains they are called such because we call them that. Our life is the testament that we are sacred. The emotions and "tug" that so many are familiar with are evidence that we are sacred. If a person didn't know that the Lakota considered the Black Hills sacred would that make them wrong? bad? evil?
Maybe if we recognized ourselves as sacred these murders and abuses would not be at the levels they are at. Maybe if we recognized that each life is as important as the next then we just might have a chance of survival.
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