A cultural lesson

The family and I were on our way to Acoma Pueblo for a little cultural trip. Acoma Pueblo is built on a mesa top, and has no electricity or running water. It is considered the longest inhabited village in North America.

A few minutes from the mesa, my wife and I start prepping the kids for what we think might be a possibly embarrasing situation. The kids can be rowdy. We tell them that the Indians have different way of living, and that it would not be polite to point or ask rude questions.

So we get there and we take the tour bus to the top of the mesa. The tour guide shows us all around, including their church, graveyard, and such. Around some of the dwellings are the Acoma people selling their pottery. Others are there going about their daily business.

Near the end of our tour, an older Acoma lady strikes up a conversation with my five-year-old, while I am half listening to the guide. She asks him, "how old are you?"

He tells her.

She then asks, "Have you seen any Indians?" He looks around and say no. She says, "Me neither." She laughs and both go on their way.

At the time I didn't think anything about the exchange. Later it hit me that in the van on the way to Acoma, we had put into his mind something much further afield than was in his own reasoning. He saw the Acoma as just people, the same as himself. The woman who talked to him was clearly wise enough to realize this as well.

He didn't see them as I did: a group oppressed by others for much of their history. Indeed, this lesson was for me; a true reminder to treat people as individuals, regardless of their history, race, or culture.

High School Reunions

High school reunions for some must be about reconnecting and reliving old memories. For others, a chance to revisit the home town. But underlying it all, there is a very real reminder of how old, fat, and hair-deprived we are getting. We start to show our mortality in many ways, and those we mourn who have passed on due to car wrecks and accidents, give way to cancers, heart problems, and finally to old age. Each passing reunion has a different feel to it. The 10 year reunion had a lot of youth still left in it, complete with attitudes and sequined dresses. The 20th was about the kids many of us had, and seemed to be a more heartfelt gathering of sould who had seen some good and bad things in their lives. By the time the 30th comes my own children will be in high school, so I imagine the perspective will be different still.

Support Our Troops

Ok, I've seen these magnet things on vehicles now for the last year or so. They range from "Support Out Troops" to "MIA/POW" to flags and breast cancer, etc., etc. Some people have two or three of them, and begin to look like magnetic shark parasites.

I noticed that something seems pretty hypocritical about some of them. These yellow ones designed to help support our troops in Iraq, appear all too often on SUVs. How are they supporting the troops fighting to bring oil to our country, while the troops are risking their lives so that they can drive a gas-guzzling SUV? Wouldn't they support the troops more by driving a fuel-efficient automobile?