U & D

Unity & Diversity

For me, the milkweed is an UR seed. It is also an expression of U & D: diverse seeds unified in a pod, seeds unified by shape, diverse in details, pods unified by family/subfamily/genus, diversified by species. Milkweeds tend to cluster in suitable habits, but also disperse each year – a survival adaptation. Unity within Diversity – Diversity within Unity. It is a good plant to keep in mind when we wrestle with the questions of Unity & Diversity in Maine Native studies.

You should know that I am non-Native. Born in Nebraska, I have grown and lived also in Wisconsin, New Jersey, Massachusetts, New York, Vermont, and Maine; I have lived in 24 homes, 8 years being the longest stay. There is no family tree in my treasure chest, just a few branches with names from Sweden, Holland, probably England, and who knows where else. Roots are not central to my worldview. But seeds are.

John Bear Mitchell said of Joseph Charnley at Saturday’s (May 3, 2008) closing of the LD291 Best Practices conference, “He must be part Wabanaki, because he gathers.” I agree, Joseph is important because he gathers. If you don’t know about his blog, follow this link to Wabanaki Connections.

I don’t gather – I follow, I find, and then I explore more. I am a hunter, I guess, but I like to record, not keep, what I find. I have hunted for milkweed in each of my 24 homes. When I find it, I am grounded – not by soil or home, but by idea. I know that I am joined to something essential and whole – a unity that is important to me. I am a seed and I am in a pod and I am a nourisher of other seeds. These seeds are spiritual, but they are also real – they are ideas. Just as milkweed seeds are blown here and there, ideas wander – sometimes willy nilly – sometimes for days or years.

Blogging an ideal way to follow them and an ideal way to explore and nourish them.

It would be folly to try to regather the seed of the milkweed, but it is an essential task to follow the seeds. I am talking here of the big and small ideas that have become scattered by time – and people – by the deliberate acts of people and by the indifferent acts of people. It is essential to try to locate the seeds and nourish them, much like seasonal god-kings were once pieced, scattered, rejoined with the earth, and reborn to guarantee and sustain culture and economy – or just to make things right.

I am going to follow here big and small ideas related to LD291 in Maine.

If the milkweed plants were to become diseased, so that only a few remained, we would preserve the seeds in seed banks – in fact, this is being done now – in case. If the milkweed plant were a culture, would preservation be enough? I think not. Culture does not live in a vault. In case is too late.

There has to be planting. But a farmer who chooses the wrong soil or season will not get a good crop. We have to understand a great deal so that we can get it right.

We need to understand the scattering. Darren Ranco spoke to this in his session last Saturday. One of the seeds is the missing historical voice of the Wabanakis themselves. If we can come to understand how and why this voice has scattered – is scattered still – we can begin to understand what happened – is happening still.

Some of the seeds fall under the category “power.” Others are “arts,” “technology,” “economy…” You might recognize the elements of the All-Cultures or Worldview Chart. These are seeds we need to follow and understand.

We can not reconstruct individual seed pods or miraculously return a milkweed to full flower, be we can support the sustainment of the plant and the and growth of its seeds. In this blog, our seeds are from the Wabanaki Nations. [It is appropriate that the word sustainment comes from the Latin: sub ‘from below’ + tenere ‘hold’ - it is word about roots, land, and nourishment].

This understanding is going to take real action in the real world, not just musing. That is the purpose of LD291. My perspective can only be the non-Native perspective, but I have insights to share.

The seed pod is open. LD291 is asking us to chase down the seeds, to understand their nature and the nature of their scattering, and then to plant and nourish. In short, to help to set things right. About time.

The Native panel at the LD291 conference suggested that we – Maine’s teachers – are learning and teaching so that our students will grow into more informed legislators. Well, I don’t want to wait until this crop of kids is running the legislature. I want to start working toward a better understanding NOW, today. 40 years is a long, long time to wait. I won’t be here to see it.

Join me in sharing ideas about how we can grow understanding and make real, sustaining change -

[image source: http://www.calvorn.com/gallery/photo.php?photo=5838&u=1240613,21]