quote: Colonialism Day

"...Columbus didn't know where he was going, didn't know where he had been, and did it all on someone else's money. And the white man has been following Columbus ever since."
-- Vine Deloria,Jr., God is Red, 1994

Another quote via another friend, that bears repeating. I hope he won't mind. This just arrived, with other provocative thoughts, under the heading, "Happy Colonialism Day". Which I think would be a fascinating way to rename this particular date on the calendar. In a dimension where we actually stopped and pondered our intentions about things, that is. As it is, my calendar titles today, "Columbus Day, Observed". I translate that final word as something like "Apparently, This Is Our Mindless Duty", or perhaps "Or So They Say". Both phrases describe, for me, the seeming attitude toward the majority of the "holidays" that this country maintains on its calendar. (I'm not going to write "celebrates", because that word is too life-affirming, and too intentional, in my dictionary. There are indeed a few days that we still Celebrate.)

But yeah, I could dream of the day when we decided to do something different with this one. Rethink it, repeal it, or just retire it. But with an honest, humble public dialogue, properly translating past to future. Accompanied, of course, by appropriate action. Are there a few humans out there courageous enough to imagine such a thing? I could envision a future world where today was called something like "Post-Colonialism Day". Where children learned in school, not what words we can find to rhyme with "1492", but of the vanished institutions of our planet's past: the World Bank, the IMF, the corporations that once degraded the environment and devalued human labor and dignity, all in the name of money. Guess us idealists can keep hoping. While, perhaps, not losing too much sleep until it happens.

And on that note, this is my word to the world today: there are some deeply interesting and valuable conversations going on about paradigm shifting, right now. I am privileged to be a part of some of them. And I would like to share some of their ideas in the near future. But I ain't shifting my paradigm any further til I get enough SLEEP. That's all I have to say for today.