91¶ÌÊÓƵ

“In 1964, I sat like you at a commencement...” 

where I graduated with the first class to earn a bachelorette degree from Weber State College. Today, after much hard work and study, it's your turn.  Now, you are now ready to learn, to find new and sometimes strange teachers, often in strange places. I've had many different teachers since graduation and learned many new lessons. These robes represent one way of learning, one way of knowing.

But, today, I wear this tooth from an African Lion to remind us there are other ways of learning, other ways of knowing.   It was given to me by a young man in the Massai Mara of Kenya, a Massai. Some of my best teachers have been indigenous people on five continents. They taught me that our worth is not measured by the abundance of our possessions. They let me see what it means to live as a part of the natural world, rather than attempt to live apart from it. They convinced me that "In wildness is the preservation of the world." And, they taught me that there are many different ways of living. They helped me see and understand what Wade Davis meant when he said "The world does not exist in any real sense the way you perceive it.  Yours is but one model of reality."

Another great teacher was a sea lion on a sandy beach in the Galapagos. She taught me that if I really want to understand a sea lion I must become a sea lion. And, a dragonfly on the Amazon river taught me that we really don't know as much about the natural world as we should because what we know often keeps us from learning what we could know. 

My journey has been exciting but has not always been a pleasant one.  What I have learned has often been painful. After knowing the joy of living and the pain of death I know what the Indian poet Kahlil Gibran meant when he said life is "A Tear and a Smile." 

We cannot ignore the people in this world who are suffering. I have seen unimaginable poverty. I have seen the destruction of rainforests, tundra's and grasslands and the plants, animals and people who called these places home and have been reminded of the words from Lord of the Rings -
               
    The world has changed
    I feel it in the waters
    I smell it in the air.
    Much that once was, is lost
    For none now lives
    Who remembers

And, sometimes I worry about the message found in the Bhaghavad Gita as Lord Krishna, tells Arjuna, "Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds"

Sadly, it appears that our path has taken us away from the natural world and from the sacred to the mundane. It has not been easy to share what I have learned with students.  Sometimes they just didn't want to hear what I had to say. Others have felt this frustration

Aldo Leopold wrote, “One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds... and sees the marks of death in a community that believes itself well and does not want to be told otherwise.”

But, I have also seen hope. I see young people, armed with knowledge, demanding that we remember that all men and women are created equal and I see them leading the charge to protect the world from the ravages of global warming and climate change and to find a better way to live together. And, I still see Massai, Samburu, Huaorani, Mayans, San Bushman and others who refuse to trade their stories, traditions and their way of life for the trinkets and toys offered by the western world.   In the Northern Territories, Australian Aborigines still sing their Song Lines and Dream their Dreamtime. 

So, here you are ready to begin a new journey.  And, here am I, ready to begin my new journey. After all this time, I'm looking forward to leaving the academic world to once again find and reconnect with the real world. Perhaps T. S. Elliot in his poem Little Gidding said it best when he wrote - 

    We shall not cease from exploration
    And the end of all our exploring
    Will be to arrive where we started
    And know the place for the first time

So, as you embark on your new journey, don't be afraid to embrace your wildness!

Be kind. Practice compassion. Don't hurt anything. Get a dog, you will be amazed at what you can learn from a dog. 

Be happy!

 

---

BACK TO BLOG