On a Fall trip several years ago, Alice and I spent a couple of days near Mesa Verde, where we visited the remnants of the Pueblo people, who lived, farmed, and built unusual structures in the area. We came away from there amazed at what these people with limited technology were able to accomplish.
I left that place wanting to learn more. After returning home, I searched online for literature about the Pueblo, and settled on a couple of books… Edward Dozier’s “The Pueblo Indians of North America” and Adolph Bandelier’s novel “The Delight Makers.” I recently finished “The Pueblo Indians of North America,” and found the last few paragraphs of the book interesting. Dozier suggested that Western thinking involves a duality of good and evil, while Pueblo ideology suggests that many facets of life exist, and all are valid and necessary to the functioning of the world.
It is easier for me to believe in a world where good exists (and that I am on the good side of the equation) alongside evil (them, the other) which needs to be fought and eliminated if possible. Most of our stories reflect the theme of good vs evil, and we love our stories. As I understand the Pueblo philosophy, all variations of nature exist for a purpose, and if we find some better than others, it is because of our lack of understanding, rather than an intrinsic good vs evil. I find this intriguing, and perhaps more robust than the simpler good vs evil duality.
All living creatures exist because of the validity of their genetic code, which allowed their ancestors to live and procreate. Human beings are not islands that are isolated, but interconnected streams; depending on each other and all life to form the river of existence. It is not a battle for supremacy, so much as a battle to understand the ecosystem, doing as little harm and as much good as possible in the time we have.
This new model made me think about our current political predicament. Wouldn’t it be interesting if we accepted and honored our differences, and vowed to work together to make our world a better place?