Re: A Dance called America

[rob <rob@eteast.com>]

this is a beautiful story with which to start the day...I just see so many people arrest their personal and intellectual development by getting bogged down in which colour skin is best, whose family, which country...this is not the domain of Culture - this is the realm of sports...

        I'm on about truth in this world, the state of literacy, the state of the media in at least Canada...we are being fed Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny and then ridiculed when we act as though we believe...the pursuit of Sinclair threads should lead one to question all of the "truths" that we take for granted in this world...

    I watch advocacy groups fight to correct an imbalance or injustice only to replace it with a structure that is imbalanced in their direction - they are as intolerant as those who they accuse of intolerance and replace one bad system with another...

           ...the goal should be to take the proper place amongst the great and the great deeds...finding grounds to identify Sinclairs as bigger-faster-stronger will just replace one misconception with another...and that is not accomplished through history...that is accomplished through marketing anyway...

        The young soccer player's deed may be considered somewhat out-of-place by some, but they represent a goal we should all aspire to...it is amazing what humans can accomplish in this spirit...

                it's a beautiful morning here in Nova Scotia,
                                        thanks for the story...

                                                                                    rob

 

 

Annie wrote:

I enjoyed your thoughts Rob. There is strength that I admire and cherish in others above all other human accomplishment. The power of kindness, forgiveness. It takes more power and worth to be remembered this way than to be the one who fought the big battle and to win. To unite rather than fight. That's real power! On the weekend I watched six year old boys play a game of soccer. The parents were screaming from the side lines (And getting rather aggressive) one little boy was called names throughout the whole game. Last ten minutes of the game he had the ball for the first time. There was a struggle for possession and a member of his opposing team fell and started to cry. So the little boy with the ball, let the ball go, even though he was being screamed at by fellow members to forge ahead. He sat beside the fallen one and offered comfort. This is as great a strength as I have ever read or seen in another. He was being the best he could be. Sometimes the simple little things make us hero's. This little man will be remembered by me forever. Annie      

----- Original Message -----

From: rob

To: sinclair@mids.orgSent: Wednesday, February 23, 2000 1:47 AMSubject: Re: A Dance called America

 being surrounded by descendants of Scottish and other exports each day...and living in a place where human beings continue to be our #1 export...has led me to some thoughts...     Like any cultural group, whether defined by geography, blood ties, or community of interest, it would not be productive to categorize the components of any group of humans as being any one thing...there is much to be said for individual responsibility and development...     As far as my reading has illuminated, people who came to the New World, including Scots, were a mix of common criminals and intellectuals, military leaders, farmers and slaves; women and men, priests of God and rogues, gay and straight, black and white, good bad and indifferent...Church leaders and those building a New World away from them...the rich and the poor...and out of this list and more, who can tell whom is really which centuries ago..     the story of any great creation is a similar path...history as we read it today is the result of the victor's consolidation of views, for political and intellectual reasons...no matter what the access-to-information-other-than-standard-views that we now enjoy through the internet, sources are limited and great amounts of study take many long years...understanding is elusive...     I think we should all beware the pursuit of categorizing one human group as being bigger-faster-stronger than another...it apparently leads to global wars...the pursuit of individual Sinclair Stories is a good one...it is human beings who accomplish - groups who share or control...      I work each day with people from a dozen different established local cultures, the leaders and the criminals, the sacred and the profane...I work with Maritimers around the world and people from around the world who come to live here...                 as for those who came here so long ago, some are survivors and builders as individuals, some are not...                                no matter what their other categorizations...                              some Sinclairs were great leaders of humankind...                                                            some are not...                                                      sometimes I'm right,                                                                sometimes I'm wrong,                                                                        sometimes what's right for today is wrong three years later...                                                                                                                                                  &nb! sp;         rob  

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