[A small smile came to his face. He didn't seem to mind telling her.]
He was a Cherokee medicine man. He had this way with talking to people that made everyone comfortable. He didn't pretend at anything and he never lied.
When I was little, he would tell me the old stories in the backyard by the fire. You see, I grew up in Tennessee with him while my father was away on missions for the Marines. I elected to stay with him because my other siblings wanted to move around. Sure, I moved too but I wanted to be where my roots were. I guess I was fascinated with him more than I was fascinated with malls and every summer I would stay with him so he wasn't ever alone. My father was the one that hated the reservation. I can't say that I blame him.
It was like I was split between the modern world and the past at the same time and often I was conflicted. I chose it and it became a part of me just like I was a part of my Cherokee heritage. I would listen to the stories and saw the symbols. As I came of age, I started to learn the practices but I still kept my mother's Catholic faith.
[He smiles softly.]
I was literally a child of two worlds. One half was ancient and part of the earth while the other half believed in the afterlife and the riches of Heaven. Both sides were very different. I can still hold both faiths and be true to them. My grandfather once told me that when the Whitemen came, they not only took the land, they tried to breed them out and some went as far as killing the children to stop the heathen beliefs by crushing their spirit by forcing their religion on them. Is that right? No. Is it victory? Of course it is.
At first, I was angry. What he said wasn't the stuff that was taught in schools. He told the story as it really was and with it came a knowledge to me that the world is a messed up place full of sinkholes and rifts. Eventually in time, those sinkholes will fill up to become ponds. Those mines dug to gouge the earth of its riches would soon become caves and homes for bats and other creatures to use. The earth heals itself in ways we can't imagine but it does.
And it's the same thing that what my grandfather has taught me. We can be angry. No one is truly virtuous. At least not a man that is conceived by another. Still, I had to find a way to make both sides work. A balance, so to speak, needed to be achieved.
My grandfather was a very wise man. He believed so heavily that people can live in peace if they are willing to seek it. Some have to fight for it. And if it's worth fighting for, then it's worth the cost.
[Video/Private]
He was a Cherokee medicine man. He had this way with talking to people that made everyone comfortable. He didn't pretend at anything and he never lied.
When I was little, he would tell me the old stories in the backyard by the fire. You see, I grew up in Tennessee with him while my father was away on missions for the Marines. I elected to stay with him because my other siblings wanted to move around. Sure, I moved too but I wanted to be where my roots were. I guess I was fascinated with him more than I was fascinated with malls and every summer I would stay with him so he wasn't ever alone. My father was the one that hated the reservation. I can't say that I blame him.
It was like I was split between the modern world and the past at the same time and often I was conflicted. I chose it and it became a part of me just like I was a part of my Cherokee heritage. I would listen to the stories and saw the symbols. As I came of age, I started to learn the practices but I still kept my mother's Catholic faith.
[He smiles softly.]
I was literally a child of two worlds. One half was ancient and part of the earth while the other half believed in the afterlife and the riches of Heaven. Both sides were very different. I can still hold both faiths and be true to them. My grandfather once told me that when the Whitemen came, they not only took the land, they tried to breed them out and some went as far as killing the children to stop the heathen beliefs by crushing their spirit by forcing their religion on them. Is that right? No. Is it victory? Of course it is.
At first, I was angry. What he said wasn't the stuff that was taught in schools. He told the story as it really was and with it came a knowledge to me that the world is a messed up place full of sinkholes and rifts. Eventually in time, those sinkholes will fill up to become ponds. Those mines dug to gouge the earth of its riches would soon become caves and homes for bats and other creatures to use. The earth heals itself in ways we can't imagine but it does.
And it's the same thing that what my grandfather has taught me. We can be angry. No one is truly virtuous. At least not a man that is conceived by another. Still, I had to find a way to make both sides work. A balance, so to speak, needed to be achieved.
My grandfather was a very wise man. He believed so heavily that people can live in peace if they are willing to seek it. Some have to fight for it. And if it's worth fighting for, then it's worth the cost.