-by Bill Watkins 8/11/2019
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People living on prime real estate must fight hard to keep it.
The British Isles? Spain? That’s some beautiful land, and many tried to invade and conquer it over the years. Because of this, armies raise up, take advantage of advantages in defense, say the invention of gun powder out of Asia in the ninth century A.D.
Another school will look at religion and spirituality, point to the evil in possessing, the evil in desire, the seven deadly sins as motive for crimes, invasion and war. The bible is among other things, a law book, laying down principles of living that if followed, would allow a person to feel some peace, if not go to heaven itself.
Prejudice is the devil, the real monster in all this, judging others as less than to boost us up—FEAR. We all self-aggrandize a bit, build up and defend ourselves. All humans do, just as all plants and animals self-preserve. So maybe we can find some forgiveness for European people, who came across an ocean to take land away from its natural inhabitants in what map-maker Martin Waldseemüller called “America” in 1507.
No justification, but forgiveness. Call out land theft as wrong and only wrong, but forgiveness. Abuse in Europe can never justify abuse in America…
But forgiveness. I believe I will forgive myself, a descendent of white conquerors, when I find a bit of land in which to live, where I am confident no one stole it. My mind is open, as one’s should be, to learn the way of first peoples—whether the Celtic Druid earth ritual, or the Native American dance as prayer. The Aboriginal meditation, the Taoist retreat, the bow at sundown looking East to Mecca, Allah and Buddha in the sky of reincarnated dreams pointing us all in different languages toward peace of mind.
The enemy is prejudice. A closed mind. And if crimes have been committed over the years against first peoples, it’s the fear behind closed minds that caused them. God of universal understanding help us, Higher Power from AA to the bars of abuse help us to the open mind that yields the enlightenment of Creation. Understanding. Compassion.
And forgiveness for the White invaders of America, who hurt themselves as much as anyone else, closing minds to the native, indigenous way of life under the glow of God’s nature without books.
Bill Watkins, Traveling Poet 