A little something I learned while homeschooling my daughter today

[The Straight Story]

We were studying history, currently we are studying the American Indians (broken up by region, like the plains, etc). We already did the around the world studies in a broad overview, and are now focusing in more on things (she is in Kindergarten).

Anyway...The stories used pointed out several times across the lessons how the Indians did not have stores to go to. Such things just did not exist. Their store was the creek, the forest, the land all around them. Everyone was skilled in something, and even kids as young as she would be out gathering bark off the ground for making wigwams.

In my head I could envision this land, the forests (which were so vast a squirrel could run from the east coast to the mississippi without touching the ground) - and our new forests we have.

A forest of roads and buildings. Once dependent on the land we are now dependent on others to stock what we need or want. It is a trade off of course. As population grows things do tend to change and become more centralized.

BUT: That made me think a little more deeply too. What do we owe each other in such a set up? We have traded off self dependence for our living needs and those that supply us have gotten wealthy doing so. It has always been based around helping each other as things change and grow. And to me health care is one such thing.

We must remain a community of people who work together for the common good - and while we have in how our roles have changed with the times, we have failed on some of the most basic things. From building wigwams together to taking care of each other. It used to be natural, now it is a battle.

No, I don't want to go back to the days of the indians - I do though want to go back to the core mentality we once had. That helping one another with the basics was the norm, not something battled over where money is the basis.

[efhmc]

1. Think how quickly we could reverse global warming if we used the idea

of community to make the changes we need to reclaim our planet.

[dysfunctional press]

2. not very quickly, actually...

not in our lifetimes, anyway.

even if CO2 output were cut to zilch tomorrow(which obviously isn't going to happen)- the atmosphere/planet would still continue to warm for several decades at least.

[Cassandra]

3. Not really answering your question but...

you might want to make some projects for your daughter with the Little House Cookbook:
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9780064460903&itm=1
or something about wild foods:
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9781592282883&itm=3
to have her actively involved in what gathering was like, assuming you're not already doing some of that.

[Bluerthanblue]

4. An EXCELLENT book for you and your

family to read would be "Birchbark House" by Louise Erdrich. It's probably a 4th grade level for reading, but the story is wonderful- very engaging, and it still has an impact on our family- even though its been 3+yrs since we read it.
We've adopted some of the language in our everyday life like saying "gaygo" 'God', when our dog acts up- :silly:

There is also a very good story about fishing ....?... Alewives?.. no, some threatened kind of salmon I think in upper Maine or Canada- .. (my memory isn't as good as it should be)- The Native Americans were given perpetual rights to gill-net their seasons worth of fish- when the "White" fishermen complained about the unfairness of this rule, the court brought up the sad reality that the Native Americans took into account the overall health of the population of fish, and only took what fish they believed would not impact the survival of the species. But that history had proved that 'we' would fish the river clean. Kind of like what happened with the passenger pigeons.

We DO need to understand how interconnected we all are, as people, and as residents of this planet.

peace,
blu