Large Fierce Mammal

The scorpions will make nests in your shoes if you leave them there. And be sure not to lean too far back on the seat in the outhouse, or let your testicles swing up under the wood. Black Widows. ~ Amarante Cordova, The Miagro Beanfield War

In last week’s Worldy Wisdom Wednesday, I talked about the  essential ingredient of mindset as it applies to the life of anyone embarking on the Path of understanding the Way of the Wild. Today I will build on that, but first we’ll review some lessons from last time because they’re the foundation of everything.

The “Environment”, as the word must be understood, encompasses the Earth in its entirety, and there is only one. Every space, regardless of size, that exists beneath, on, and above the surface of the planet – however near to or far from anything – is part of it, and everything that lives coexists inside it. Each living thing exists to fill a niche in Nature, and wherever it lives will share the portion of the Environment it occupies with others of its kind, along with still others of other kinds that either compete with it for a share of the same niche, or serve a supporting role. Regardless of role, this portion of the Environment in which a creature lives is its range, and within that range it will coexist with others to which it will be predisposed to be accepting, fearful, indifferent, or predatory.

We’ll be addressing the concept of range in more detail as we move forward, but for now you must think on what I’ve said about the Environment, and most deeply on your place as a member of the living multitude within it – not above all, but among all. As a member of that group of creatures in Nature that are called Man, you are at the top of the food chain wherever you live, but that is not the same as being above all things, and this matter is the next vital lesson to understanding the Way of the Wild. The Way of the Wild as it expresses itself purely in Man is not at odds with any other thing. Were it so, evolutionary development of our kind would have long since spiralled downward into nothingness, and we would have been heaved into the realm of extinction, self-inflicted or otherwise, millennia ago. This is not to say that conflict, up to and including *GASP* fighting is not a part of the Way of the Wild – FAR from it! But we’ll be getting to that on a Wednesday soon to come.

Everyone is familiar with modern usage of the terms “environmentalist”, “environmentally friendly”, “organic”, “all natural”, and “green”. In my own life and range, green is a colour and nothing more. Water Hemlock is not only green, organic, and all natural, it’s one of the most poisonous plants in North America. Every one of these terms, the meaning of each of which has been completely subverted, intrinsically accepts and promotes a separation between the place where humans live, and that where everything else lives, for the singular purpose of influencing human behaviour, individually and culturally. This fosters entire fields of human endeavour in which arguments play out, research budgets are expended, well meaning people are burnt out by misdirected expressions of their passions, political and business agendas are realized, and the reality of Nature gets lost as the juggernaut of exclusive human growth hurtles on.

So the last thing I will leave you with today is growth. The Natural kind that enlivens and strengthens everything, and the kind that, even though organically grown, is out of balance with Nature and therefore not at one with the Way of the Wild. Once again we are confronted with two competing brands.

Think on this and what’s been discussed here today. Comment with your observations and questions in the mean time, and meet me here next week. Oh – and don’t touch that Water Hemlock, even if someone hands it to you saying, “Hey! It’s totally organic and all natural! How bad can it be?”

Not being a Christian I never really got the taste for the Gospel music genre, and neither am I a particularly big fan of the Blue Grass style, although I have encountered exceptions along the way and expect I’ll continue to do so.  The magic ingredient defining the enjoyability of any piece of music that’s inspired by someone’s spiritual beliefs has to be sincerity rather than salesmanship or zealotry.

Yesterday, while Mrs. LFM and I were visiting Thompson San, who is of a Christian bent, he exposed us to this piece – a musical admonishment to be of good behaviour delivered from a decidedly Old Testament perspective. I’ll warn you now – if your beliefs are of the shrill and easily bruised variety, or if you take umbrage with profanity and mature themes, stop now.

“Hegel was right when he said that we learn from history that man can never learn anything from history.” ~ George Bernard Shaw

As entertaining as the literature is, I refuse to become embroiled in discussions, debates, arguments, bar fights, or even late night eye stabbings over the possibility, feasibility, potential reality, or desirability of time travel. Point of fact, my position on time travel is that I simply won’t tolerate it.

First off, the sheer power of time travel puts it into the realm that will be fought over with lethal vigour by big money and its pet, government. Bad enough they control what they do now, but we have to draw a line somewhere. And after that, I have a second issue.

Revisionist history is the single greatest threat to humanity’s understanding of itself that has ever been invented, and there needs to be a death penalty I swear to fuck. Look at the reprehensible and yet regrettably still thriving ranks of people who want not only themselves and their own circle, but everyone else to believe the Holocaust never happened. Look at the multiple revisions of the Bible, each carrying its own slant on someone’s agenda. Read the fucking news. After all that, think about how wonderful a world it would be if people had the power to make the other people, things, and events they consider to be inconvenient simply unhappen. Ladies and Gentlemen, I am here to tell you that I consider my daily experience plying my business in such a tiny expanse as Nova Scotia to be sufficient evidence that most humans of the current version, regardless of their level of education or economic entitlement, lack the maturity and trustworthiness to reliably and safely operate a motor vehicle, let alone a device with such far reaching consequences as a time machine.

So I simply won’t have it. Neither should you, and I’m putting together a posse of like minded critters to join me in stamping it out once and for all. In the end, we’ll probably never have to mobilize because even if time travel is possible and has ever been realized, I’m sure some son of a bitch as bad as or worse than me … and possibly me … has grown, and will continue to grow, tired of it and repeatedly come back from the resultant, ever fluctuating fucked up world of a future after time travel to off yet again the stupid bastard who worked so hard to make it happen.

Are ya WITH me?

Spider and Butterfly – September 2007 (Mrs. LFM Photo)

I’ve gotten more than a few good minds to thinking about the Way of the Wild, and some of the resulting correspondence has respectfully asked me when I was going to get into more practical aspects – most particularly, how I personally go about embracing and expressing the Way of the Wild in my own Life. Well, today marks the first of many articles in which I will embark down that road. After all, the Way of the Wild is nothing if not practical, and never forget that it is the very embodiment of patience!

Get a bunch of elementary school kids together and ask each of them to draw you a picture of “the environment”. What do you think you’ll get? I’ll tell you what – pictures of forests, mountains and clear blue skies, lakes and rivers, sparkling oceans that you can bet will have whales cavorting in them, and overall, lots of happy animals of all varieties. No cities, no towns, no houses. You asked for “the environment” and those last few elements don’t enter into the equation. Children, with their endless malleability, operate on a simpler and Wilder level than adults, and yet are being taught to embrace a mindset in which there is the world of Man, and then there is the world of everything else, and that last place is where you can find “the environment”. They are taught that it’s the job of Humans to take care of Nature. They must try to protect Her, so that future generations of people will still have trees and deer and forests and streams and fish and whales to “enjoy”. This is not at one with the Way of the Wild. (more…)

There’s an old story set in the days when the fastest and cheapest method of long distance communication was the telegraph. Two men bought a race horse that was doing so well in a series of races that they found themselves with the necessity to enter it in a race that was half a continent away. Fattened by their winnings, although not fat enough, they found that by the time the transportation costs for the horse and jockey were paid, the kitty permitted only one of them to accompany them. A flip of a coin decided the issue and they were off, as it’s said, to the races.

Betting nearly all they had on their horse, the race went well … up to a point. From the start, it was in the lead until, on the final stretch, it stumbled – with disastrous result. A broken leg demanded that the horse be immediately put down, and the accompanying partner was devastated. Heading off to the nearest telegraph office to notify his opposite number of the outcome, he learned that he’d have to pay by the word instead of by the message as he had supposed. With only enough money in his pocket to get home, plus another dollar and a half (he’d been counting on being flush with winnings), there was no way he could afford to send a detailed message. He thought a moment and then asked the telegraphist to sent, “SF SF SF SF.”

The telegraphist complied and then asked, “I know it’s none of my business, but would you mind telling me what that means?”

“I don’t mind at all,” said the man, “It means, ‘Started fast, slipped and fell, shot the fucker, see you Friday.'”

As with the telegraph company in this anecdote, there was a time when cellular telephone carriers likewise charged by the character for that simultaneously useful and thrice accursed thing called “texting”, resulting in the development and rapid proliferation of so called “text speak” – an agreed upon system of cost saving abbreviations intended to convey words with minimal use of characters (although this doesn’t explain how “banana” became an accepted euphemism for “penis”). Regrettably, text speak has become the norm in written communication exchanged between members of a generation that has never known anything but a cellular plan that includes unlimited texting, but to whom “u” will always be the proper spelling of “you”.

There is a tendency, based on a far too wide spread conceit of far too many, to learn of something that was done a certain way in “the olden days”, realize the reason is unknown to them but make no attempt to research why, deciding instead to derive contentment from the conclusion that it’s because the people back in those days simply didn’t know any better. Here in Nova Scotia, we regularly see this play out when monied city folk with an untreated edifice complex  buy coastal property and build palatial houses on flood plains and expanses of exposed shoreline. All the hills around have houses on them that are 100+ years old, and nothing of similar age aside from an easily replaced fish shack or boat house exists on the shore, but them monied city folk iz privy to somethin’ nobody else knows – them olden times house builders didn’t build on the shore because they “didn’t know any better”. And so, every major hurricane and spring flood, everyone with an insurance premium gets to help pay for that fallacy after Nature comes to call.

But I digress. Getting back to text speak, I have no doubt that it will come as quite a surprise to many that the people who relied upon the telegraph to get their messages there and back again faster than any mail train or ship could manage, had no problem with engineering a workaround for the pesky issue of word length and sentence structure. The result – The Anglo-American Telegraphic Code to Cheapen Telegraphy, hereinafter referred to as “the Code”, published all the way back in the 19th century.

Its mission:

It is the outgrowth from what, at first, consisted of various special codes, adapted to special businesses, which were quite limited in scope, and later, of more general codes of wider scope. At last a demand comes for one which will embrace all subjects of correspondence, and this work is designed to meet it.

The expense and publicity entailed in the use of the telegraph are recognized as serious obstacles. This work will cause a great diminution of these, in many cases practically eliminating them. Embracing as it does, social and domestic, as well as business and miscellaneous subjects, a large proportion of correspondence which is now conducted through the mails, can, through its medium, at slight expense, be conducted, confidentially and quickly, by telegraph.

Its use will also be recognized as an important means of confidential communication not only in telegrams but also in letters and postal cards.

This system will be found to be a novel one to the greater part of the public, but it is believed that its usefulness and importance will be promptly recognized while its simplicity makes it available for every one.

Actually, screw texting. It kind of sounds like the conception of e-mail doesn’t it?

Obviously the birth of text speak was never so well thought out, but it shares one commonality of the human condition – people of all eras like to pinch their pennies until the monarch stamped thereon has tears in their eyes. After all, frugality is the travelling companion of commerce. But beyond simple cost control, the Code contained aspects of self-preservation.

The advent of telegraphy with its far reaching implications for world wide communication open to anyone with the money to pay for the service put telegraphers – the people who rattled that telegraph key – in high demand. This led to an occupational hazard, known back in the day as “glass arm“. Today we’d call it repetitive strain disorder. You can see where this is going, can’t you?

Yes, you’d hand your already carefully streamlined message to the telegrapher, pay the quoted fee, and then he’d be off to send it using the Code to ease the strain.

Doesn’t this knowledge make you feel all cutting edge 21st century and stuff?

Source – {link: http://hal_macgregor.tripod.com/kennel/Anatomy.htm}The Anatomy of a Coyote Attack{/link}

“We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.” ~ Kurt Vonnegut

In my 18 July 2012 article, Worldly Wisdom Wednesday – The Way of the Wild, I said, in part:

Every living thing in Nature, flora or fauna, has a Way that defines its ideal state of being. That balanced equation of form and function forged by generations of evolution against the anvil of environmental reality. This ideal state of being is, for each species, its own unique expression of the greater, all encompassing Way – the Way of the Wild – the Way from which all others spring.

The Way of the Wild deals with Life, Death, who gets each, and when. For successful organisms, embracing this Way is not a choice, and of all things on the Earth, only one kind flirts with living as though this were not so – Man. For the most part, human society does not embrace Wild in its Natural sense, viewing it instead as representing all that is wanton, dangerous, and out of control. An unpredictably unacceptable condition fit only to be tamed or eradicated for the greater; i. e., human; good. Down that path lies a disconnection wrought by an artificially orchestrated thing called “civilization”, built on a foundation of conflict with the Way of the Wild. This will one day resolve itself, one way or another, and of that resolution only one thing can be said with certainty – the Way of the Wild will prevail, as it always has and always will.

As though bent on demonstrating the veracity of my words, the 5 August 2012 edition of the Cape Breton Post contained an article titled Campers rescued after coyotes surround campsite. Click the link and absorb what’s written there, both on and between the lines.

Depending on the setting, a Human may come to be regarded as a prey animal under certain circumstances, no matter how much that Human may embrace the Way of the Wild; but it must never be forgotten that a prey animal is as a prey animal does, and a hunter is as a hunter does.

Think on this.

Baltasar Gracián in a portrait by an unknown artist.

Baltasar Gracián (8 January 1601 – 6 December 1658) was a Spanish Jesuit and writer. A thorn in the side of his superiors for a number of reasons, not least for his propensity to publish his personal views without official permission, and once having read from the pulpit a letter he said he had just received from Hell, he is best known today as the author of Oráculo manual y arte de prudencia, translated into English as The Art of Worldly Wisdom, and which you can read by clicking the title. Consisting of 300 “Maxims” with supporting commentary, the tome provides a handy and thorough guide to navigating the treacherous waters of society where, then as now, things are only very rarely what they seem.

Not surprisingly, The Art of Worldly Wisdom enjoys popularity alongside such worthy works as The Book of Five Rings in being regarded as a template for success that still brims with relevance in the modern world. The lifetimes of both Baltasar Gracián and Miyamoto Musashi overlapped in their mutual environments, each unknown to the other, and fathoming life from his own perspective – one an administrator of Catholicism, the other arguably the greatest swordsman who has ever lived – each speaking his Truth from a foundation of intellectual and life experience that lies outside abstract systems of belief, addressing only what is necessary. What springs from the Nature of Man.

The animal called Man, like all others, represents a temporary pinnacle of evolutionary development aimed at filling a niche deemed by Nature to be necessary. The paths to individual fulfillment will vary as individuals vary – in their abilities, aptitudes, and level of understanding. All Nature’s creatures must continually face a fluctuating set of environmental circumstances and divine the options that exist. Sometimes the circumstances are slow to change and, for the most part, predictable. Sometimes they are terribly transient. And so, we have “The Moment” for which, if the NOW represents a desirable situation, the best option may be to go with the flow. If not, there are other options, including moving on, adapting in place, or dying.

So, in reading the works of the two men I’ve spoken of here, seek not a similarity in specific content. Seek instead what may not, at first, be apparent. On one hand, we have a priest whose Truth was not founded in an abstract concept of God, but in the Nature of Man, outside the bounds of the faith he served. On the other, a warrior whose Truth found the same outcome extraneous to the Warrior Way and the problem solving applications of cold steel. They were both Men in the appropriately Wild sense of the word.

"I Am the Eagle" art courtesy of Rhett Davis Music

In the last few days I’ve had a song stuck in my head that came straight out of the soundtrack of my youth. Up until recently, it was the only song by Rhett Davis I’ve ever heard.

Called I Am the Eagle, it’s a catchy tune that speaks to me on a number of levels. Give it a listen …

And here’s another one that really grabbed me. Titled Spirits, I’ll dedicate it here without reservation to Mrs. LFM.

Mr. Davis has generously posted links to a lot of his work on his website, but don’t let that stop you from supporting the man’s more than worthy efforts with some coin of the realm.

Mrs. LFM photo. Click the picture to enlarge.

We live and exist in an ocean of divine consciousness. The plants and trees partake in this consciousness and energy. When we travel the forests and fields, or canoe the lakes, rivers, and streams, we are surrounded by healing energies that nourish the body, mind, and spirit. When the medicine maker declares that we are surrounded by medicines, it means that we are surrounded by medicinal plants and trees, and also, that we live in this ocean of healing energy. ~ Laurie Lacey, Mi’kmaq Medicines – Remedies and Recollections (Revised Second Edition)

Mrs. LFM and I have had the privilege of knowing Laurie Lacey for a little shy of two years, and yet, when one meets a kindred spirit on the Path, duration of the relationship is of no consequence. To say we share “opinions” in common would widely miss the mark. Rather, when one recognizes the Way of the Wild sincerely and profoundly expressed in a fellow traveller, the “getting to know you” phase becomes wonderfully abbreviated in favour of getting on with more important pursuits. While the Way of a thing reveals itself to a person according to his or her current level of understanding, commitment to study, and openness to reality, in embracing the Way of the Wild – the Way of Nature – in all Her profundity, there is no room for “opinion”, and Nature’s Way is the source of all Ways. To quote Miyamoto Musashi –

If you know something, you know something. If you do not know something, it does not exist in your world …. Everything is revealed to all men as they desire it to be revealed to them, by their own definitions alone.

I’ve been spending quality time with Laurie through the revised second edition of his Mi’kmaq Medicines – Remedies and Recollections since it came into our possession last Saturday, and have found within its covers far more than a treatise on the natural remedies and medicine practices of the Mi’kmaq people. This is a new incarnation of his earlier Micmac Medicines, published in 1993, and that according to Laurie was originally written as, “… a cultural resource and personal experience narrative, rather than a presentation on how to prepare the medicines for personal or clinical use.” In fact, in the preface he reveals, “When I began my work with Mi’kmaq plant and tree medicines back in 1974, I planned to do it for a year, then move on with my life. At the time, I was a university student researching Mi’kmaq medicines for my honours degree thesis. Now, thirty-eight years later, I continue my work with traditional medicines – speaking, writing, giving medicine walks, and demonstrating the medicines to individuals and groups of people at community events.”

As one who writes and talks a lot about my experiences, revelations, and hard won knowledge in pursuit of an ever deeper understanding of Nature and Her Truths, and who seeks to educate others who are open to the Way of the Wild, I consider Laurie Lacey to be a living treasure that all such people owe it to their corner of the World to seek out and learn from, even if only by reading this book. Mrs. LFM and I have the advantage of knowing Laurie first hand, sharing time with him in the field, and knowing the sound of his voice – reading this book the imagination carries the boon of actually hearing him narrate it because its every turn of phrase is so … him.

Every chapter treats a different aspect both of his quest for knowledge in this field, and the special places in which the knowledge was, and can be, revealed. Along the way, Laurie never fails to give homage to the people, animals, plants, places, and Spirits of all four that have guided him in his journey. The sections that describe specific plants are illustrated with simple line drawings that some may criticize as simplistic and lacking in the detail necessary to recognize those plants in the field. Speaking as one who actually knows some, but by no means all, of the plants involved (we need a LOT more Medicine Walks with Laurie before that claim can be made), of the ones with which I am personally familiar, I can say without reservation that the art work perfectly captures the essential essence of the plant. That having been said, Laurie recommends that this book be used in conjunction with a quality plant identification manual, and that plants be harvested, prepared, and used with respect, intelligence, and caution.

Laurie never preaches, but one revelation that I had subtly driven home to me by this book was the degree to which the medicine traditions of the Mi’kmaq were driven underground, although thankfully never obliterated, by forced Christianization and attempted “civilization”. Further, Laurie specifically addresses how this pattern has continued in its newest form – government regulations in the name of “health”. He stands firm in his position that we must use, “… every means at our disposal to preserve and pass along traditional medicine knowledge,” and that its study and practice must be absolutely free from the interference of, “… government bureaucrats and agencies who are biased in favour of pharmaceutical drugs and the allopathic system of medicine.”

He further states –

The individual’s right to make an informed personal choice must be respected. Just as important is that aboriginal plant and tree medicines are steeped in cultural tradition, so attempts to regulate them are challenges to the survival of the cultures themselves. It is the responsibility of medicine makers to reject and ignore regulatory efforts, and to be governed solely by the medicine traditions and inner ethical standards.

Laurie is an animated and enthusiastic man in his passions, but at the same time, his default manner is to be calm and soft spoken. In this, he reveals himself as a fierce, committed defender of the Truth, and in his words I hear echoes of what I consider appropriately absolute and unyielding opposition to all attempts at subjugating the Way of the Wild on every level, from any source. I know with certainty that he detests conflict as it has come to roost in today’s world, but that he will not shy away from it when the cause is just and necessary. In this, he has unrelenting allies here in the LFM camp, I can assure you. As the adage goes, “The thorn defends the rose, yet it is peaceful and does not seek conflict.”

Mi’kmaq Medicines – Remedies and Recollections has the LFM stamp of approval. If you seek Wisdom, it belongs in your library.

If you want to learn about Mi'kmaq medicines, we know a guy. (Mrs. LFM photo. Click the picture to enlarge.)

This past Saturday, Mrs. LFM and I attended and participated in the Kejimkujik Story Telling Festival at Kejimkujik National Park and National Historic Site. The event was also the venue for launch of the revised second edition of  Mi’kmaq Medicines – Remedies and Recollections written by our esteemed Friend, and bottomlessly effervescent fount of ethnobotanical Wisdom, Laurie Lacey. I’ve written of Laurie before in my article Medicine Man and he was the inspiration for my poem, Trails – With Dedication to Laurie Lacey.

This is what the Parks Canada website had to say about the festival:

Participate in numerous workshops and demonstrations by local artisans and partake in traditional storytelling, musical performances, food sampling, children’s activities, a free BBQ lunch, and many other activities which celebrate the art of storytelling. Return in the evening from 8pm until 10:30pm for an open mic event and a campfire drum circle. Regular admission fees apply.

The Park, locally referred to simply as “Keji”, encompasses a vast area that has been inhabited by the Mi’kmaq People for thousands of years before the first Europeans arrived, and some areas within its boundaries are clearly marked as subject to restricted access due to their significance as sacred sites. The location of the Story Telling Festival was adjacent to one of them.

The revised second edition! Buy it and schedule a talk with Laurie Lacey. (Mrs. LFM photo. Click the picture to enlarge.)

On arrival, we dismounted our vehicle to the sound of Mi’kmaq drumming and singing, and the stage was set for Laurie, who we met as he came striding up the trail mere seconds later. Everything about the event was flavoured with an air of celebration of Mi’kmaq heritage and culture, including Laurie who is of mixed Irish and Mi’kmaq ancestry and enjoys the well earned respect of Mi’kmaq elders, many of whom have assisting him in his quest for knowledge in the field of traditional Natural medicines.

It’s my understanding that this was the first Story Telling Festival ever held at the site, and we sincerely hope it becomes an annual fixture in the Park’s schedule. None other than Laurie Lacey himself led this year’s traditional story telling circle, and participants ranged in antiquity from children of elementary school age, all the way up to those of us old enough to fart dust.  Let it be said that if you get a chance to participate in a traditional story telling circle, even if only as a listener, don’t miss it. I’ll elaborate on why I feel that way in a future article.

We first learned of the event because of Laurie’s book launch, so we came to support him in that, and to participate in the story telling circle. What we found was that and much more; but then, Kejimkujik’s like that.

The drumming. The singing. The palpable and pervasive cultural power. The people. The pride. The Place. I sat down the day after we attended the event to write a detailed report, but quickly realized this thing simply needs to happen again, it needs to build on this year’s foundation, and if the aromas I’ve fanned here today speak to your appetites, you need to be there. In the mean time, I need some time to put my rampaging thoughts together so they can appear coherently in related future articles, you need to buy a copy of Mi’kmaq Medicines – Remedies and Recollections, and read my review in tomorrow’s Worldly Wisdom Wednesday.