I wanted to build that in solidly as a concrete example that Earth, which figures in the title this evening, does not mean mundane, this Earth, mundane only, but this as set within transcendence, and a transcendental world. That said, now I can go back to my title, planted. You know, that's a good word, planting wheat, grain, and so on, flowers. It's a good word, and planted like a tree, planted by the waters.

[01:06]

We shall not be moved. I love that word, plant. We're planted in place. Place is concrete. Space is abstract. Three cubic yards of space is the same anywhere, everywhere. But place is concrete. As in the refrain of Stephen Foster's melody, there is no place like home. And we all know the truth of that fact. Now, the native, the indigenous people is slanted in place, not space.

[02:14]

And let me give you two anecdotes personal that I experienced. One of my great friends, and Phil, too, he's going, he knows as much about this as I do, and in the latter part, why he's going to be up here, and we're going to bounce things off of each other. Oren Lyons, which Phil knows, and I know, he was a very good friend of mine. And while I was in Syracuse for six years, I spent as much time as I could hanging out with a Native American, and they told me lots of lore and yarns and experience. And he, Oren Langs, was the first one to go to college. He didn't stick it out. My friend, my student, was the first one.

[03:18]

get a degree. But he went for one semester. And when he came home, his uncle took him out in a canoe on a lake on the reservation. And after he got him situated in the middle of the lake, Oren's uncle said, okay, my nephew, You've been to college. You must be pretty smart. Tell me, who are you? And Oren said I was taken aback. And he said, well, I'm Oren. And his uncle said, no, no. Who are you? And Oren said, well, I'm your nephew. No, who are you? And he kept on going like that.

[04:19]

And finally, finally, he gave up. And he said, well, my uncle, tell me, who am I? And his uncle said, do you see that water in this lake? Well, of course I see it. Oren, you are. that water. And do you see that bluff on the other side of the lake? Orin, you are that bluff. And do you see the pine tree on the other side? Orin, you are that pine tree. Well, you know, this is worth reflecting on. There is no sharp distinction between self and place.

[05:29]

My second anecdote. There was going to be a youth seminar during the summer. A hundred college-age students from all over the world, all over the world, different religions to live together and learn from one another and go to the sacred places. Now they asked for my advice. I didn't go with them. And I said, well, I do. You're taking off from New York. And I understand that you're going to have the first meeting of these students in a kind of a park area 75 miles north of New York City or something like that. I said, I, since we're leaving from America, I would like that send-off to be by the indigenous people on this country, continent, where you're taking off from.

[06:42]

agreed, so I took two carloads, drove from Syracuse up to that part. And they delegated one of their young men to do the ceremony that would launch this three-month project. And so when the time came, I didn't introduce him. No, I guess I did. and said he will be giving a prayer to ask the blessing on this venture. So he got up. And he did not close his eyes. Quite the contrary. He was looking around, up and down and back and forth and so on, speaking in his own voice. And that went on for 40 minutes.

[07:49]

Okay, I have a Christian upbringing. I know about long prayer, but I had never known about a 40-minute prayer. And then he stopped and just went back into the crowd. But I did not feel comfortable leaving all these people with no explanation. So I asked him to come forward and again and said, can you say in English, give us a summer of who you were praying to, what you were saying. And he said, All I did was to name everything that I could see.

[08:53]

Trees, fir, grass, stone, leaves, everything that I could see. And he said, because I wanted all of those beings to wish their blessing upon this venture, all right? That's my second anecdote with place, because they're everything was congregated and coming together to wish them all. Now, it would be a mistake to think that this attention to detail is confining.

[10:08]

Place is confining. not because they can carry their place with them. Emphasis on place wherever they go. The Australians, when they go on walkabout, every reel, every stream has its legends that identify this and give it a very special place on Earth. Now, I'm coming to the close of my remark, and I'm going to conclude the second half of my

[11:13]

my title, the Native American, let's just say, indigenous people view of our place on earth. It is concrete and there is only a filmy line between self and place. Now, My concluding remark on this comes from the anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss. He was one of the early anthropologists to focus on native peoples. And he summarized his life work in a book with a terrible title. but a valuable insight.

[12:14]

You know, he titled it The Savage Mind. That is reprehensible. And the best we can say for it is we can take hope in that we have moved a little bit from that. I mean, Nobody, decent person, would talk about indigenous people as savages anymore. That is so scurrilous that it's even hard for me to pronounce it. But he does quote something in that book that is valuable. He quotes an indigenous person as saying, every sacred thing has its place.

[13:25]

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