Equal Partners
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People are equal partners with the plants and animals, not their masters who exploit them.
–Haida Gwaii, Traditional Circle of Elders
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As human beings, we are not above anything nor are we below anything. Because of being equal, we need to discuss a little about the value of respect. Not just respect when it comes to human beings, but respect when it comes to everything. We are not masters over things; we are caretakers for the Great Spirit. We need to treat all things with respect.
— Native American Prayer
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“The majority of men ‘without religion’ still hold to pseudo religions and degenerated mythologies. There is nothing surprising in this, for, as we saw, profane man is the descendant of homo religiosus and he cannot wipe out his own history — that is, the behavior of his religious ancestors which has made him what he is today. This is all the more true because a great part of his existence is fed by impulses that come to him from the depths of his being, from the zone that has been called the “unconscious,” A purely rational man is an abstraction; he is never found in real life. Every human being is made up at once of his conscious activity and his irrational experiences.”
― Mircea Eliade, The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion
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I think writing really helps you heal yourself. I think if you write long enough, you will be a healthy person. That is, if you write what you need to write, as opposed to what will make money, or what will make fame.
— Alice Walker
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The great artists of the world are never Puritans, and seldom even ordinarily respectable.
— HL Mencken
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‘Degenerated mythologies’ is an interesting term. If you want to write or create art you have embarked on a lifestyle that depends more on questions than final answers. If you are offended by skepticism or doubt because it challenges the mythologies of your culture you are going to find it hard to create anything but cliches. We live surrounded by degenerated mythologies and their effects.
