Dena Eakles

Don’t Give Your Life Away

Our honoring of Veterans on November 11th stems from the Armistice or peace agreement set forth on the 11^thhour of the 11^thday of the 11^thmonth of 1918, which brought an end to WWI. Known as “the war to end all wars” both sides agreed to end the bloody conflict, which had taken more than 8.5 million lives over four years.

When the generals agreed to end the fighting, the Allies chose the 11th hour. Six hours remained before that time. In the final moments, a young man, honored by the United States as the last soldier to die in that war, charged the German line. Both sides called for him to stop before machine guns ended his life.

Henry Gunther had been drafted. On the front lines he had written a letter urging a friend not to enlist. The letter was intercepted and for his clarity he was demoted. His fiancé ended their engagement and he was left to prove himself a worthy soldier.

The peace of the armistice did not find him.

When I was young I dreamed that one-day soldiers would refuse to fight. I was told it was naïve. I am older now and I have learned a bit about peace. And this is what I know: peace is a personal choice we each must make again and again. It is not an end of conflict. It is a feeling and an understanding and it is possible.

Peace is a choice. And I am still dreaming that all people will make that choice.

As for Henry Gunther he was posthumously reinstated to his role as sergeant. And even though honored as the last to die in the war, he was not.

But he reminds us of this: Discover your own armistice and don’t give your life away.

Love Conquers

It’s time to change the narrative. You know, the stories of our lives; the beliefs that were handed to us and go unchallenged. The fabrications of falsehoods devised to divide.

There are some real perks to rural living. One is the solitude that comes from the physical distance of other people – the good, the bad and the ugly. The downside to rural living is our ability to avoid anyone or anything that challenges the comfort zone of beliefs we commonly share. This isolation into sameness often drives me to discover a different glimpse of humanity.

Our Winding River library system carries a wide variety of important films. I was grateful to borrow the 2018 film “The Hate U Give”. This American drama is based on a novel by Angie Thomas and directed by George Tillman, Jr.

In the movie we are given the opportunity to witness a black teen exist between two worlds: a white suburban high school she attends and her home in a predominantly black and poor neighborhood.

It would be very easy to reduce this clash of two worlds to sound bites, but the written artistry, superb directing and passionate acting present viewers with complex themes in a human touch.

Tupac Shakur and his message of “Thug Life” play a central theme in the movie. We’re invited to explore Tupac’s explanation of the meaning of “thug” in these, his edited words, “The Hate U Give Little Infants, “Effs” Everybody.”

This is a movie that explores hate but is triumphant in love. And that is profound in a world insistent on division.

My advice? Rent the movie. Take time with it and make sure to engage the extras on the menu. Look at life from another’s point of view. Take time to see how hate destroys, but love conquers, and then, let’s change the narrative.

photo from Wikipedia

The Thinning Veil

As the weather turns towards winter our interaction with Nature offers another window of understanding. Shorter and often cloudy days are a transition away from the busy buzz of summer. The waning of the green and the falling leaves remind us of the finite nature of life. For those who live of and from the Earth the impending winter teaches us to prepare for what will surely be the stark contrast of summer’s plenty. So it is of little wonder that centuries of people have held the end of October and the beginning of November as a time of reflection.

Samhain, the Day of the Dead, All Souls Day and more were created by human beings who wanted to honor and celebrate this unique season. This passage of time brings with it the recognition of death and of those who have gone before us. Ancestors are honored and homage paid to them, in hopes that any darkness that had stalked them would let them rest in peace. There is also a hope to chase away any demons that may have been left behind.

The end of October and beginning of November is often referred to as the time of the thinning veil. The veil is the cloak that keeps us from the awareness of our true nature. When the veil thins, we have the opportunity to see differently. It is as if Nature has given us this time to make peace with our finite nature and to begin to comprehend our nature of infinite consciousness.

To distil this time to a holiday marked by fear and titillation is a commentary on our culture’s discomfort with death and our lack of connection to life’s more subtle invitations. When ceremony looses its roots, we are left with superstition.

Let the season remind us.

photo: wikipedia commons

Refuse to Surrender

Hope, like faith, cannot be blind. It needs to be active and engaged. It requires love and consciousness. And it exists in each of us.

These days hope is easily dashed. When we are hopeless we are easily misled and easily crushed. Fear becomes the dominant force.

And fear is hope’s enemy; especially the paralyzing kind that grips us when we believe there is nothing we can do.

I understand why many of my friends cannot follow the news. The facts and the fabrications are daunting. Just the numbers of worldwide refugees are enough to overwhelm us. The displacement of people due to war, natural disaster, persecution and violence have resulted in over 60 million human beings forced from their homes over the past two decades.

Sixty million children, women and men, young and old, have been driven from their homes. With daily news of over crowded camps, disease and starvation, they are crying to be recognized and desperate to be helped.

Recent events in Syria have underscored the fact that governments are not helping and are more likely the cause of forced displacement.

Hoping that our government or any government will save the day is simply blind. Religious leaders too, are often mired in politics, greed or scandal and guide with fear, not hope.

I am of the mindset that everything we need is at hand. It is not a whimsical fairy tale. It’s an idea born of experience.

Hope is the launching point of action. It is the direct result of courageous conviction and supreme trust. And it is born in the heart of an individual who refuses to surrender to ignorance.

I will leave you with these words of Desmond Tutu: “Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.”

Seeking Compassion

If you fell into the lull of summer, October will bring to you the shock of approaching winter. Lush grasses wither with a serious frost. The sheep roam the orchard with a bit more ferocity, stocking up on any late falling apples. Wild animals put on extra coats of fur and this is often an indicator of how swiftly winter will settle in with permanency.

October is also the month my mother would begin to query me on how wild animals make it through the winter. She had seen fawns and had fallen in love with their grace and beauty. She needed to know they would be OK when the icy winds of winter blew. I would share with her all that I had observed and while that placated her, she was determined to put her concerns to rest. So one day she said, “There must be a building they go to.” I smiled at her simplicity and reveled in her compassion.

I thought of her today as I contemplated human homelessness. I have never understood it. I’m certain it is a human construct. And I know the numbers of people we deem homeless have increased over the past few decades – directly proportional to our growing lack of empathy and compassion.

So when I heard Bernie Sanders declare that “a safe, decent, accessible, and affordable home (is) a fundamental right,”I agreed. When I heard that he said this the day after President Trump disparaged the homeless, I applauded. Apparently Trump would like us to believe that the homeless crisis is harming cities’ “prestige”.

More research on homelessness reveals the fact that providing people with a permanent home is more cost effective than offering temporary housing or temporary services. That makes sense.

We have everything we need to end homelessness; we simply lack compassion.

Goodbye Columbus

We are inching closer to renaming Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples’ Day. The debate began in 1977 at a Conference on Discrimination Against Indigenous Populations. And it demands ongoing education.

Why education? Well, for starters, Columbus wasn’t the first European to discover the Western Hemisphere. The first were Norse, traveling west from Greenland, when Erik the Red founded a settlement near what is now Newfoundland in 985. Secondly, Columbus never set foot on North America and instead landed in what is now known as the Bahamas. After meeting the native people, Columbus incorrectly named them Indio and captured about twenty-five human beings to be gifted as slaves to the Spanish king and queen. About eight of his twenty-five captives survived the trip. This began the first transcontinental slave trade.

On his second voyage Columbus brought with him soldiers and farmers to colonize the land and the people. The Taino people, who were known to be peaceful and full of natural wisdom and complex, governing systems, were brutally eliminated. Thus began the systemic destruction of indigenous ways of life and the genocide that continues to this day.

So the question becomes, why do we celebrate a man who bridged the Atlantic Ocean with cruelty and ignorance? The answer lies in a world-view whose bottom line believes that the destiny of human kind lies with god*. I have read explanations that it was god’s hand that guided the misguided Columbus. This vengeful and cruel god is the excuse of those who continue to exercise colonialism and the genocide of indigenous people throughout the world.

In 1991, Russell Means, an Oglala Lakota human rights activist, gave the prophetic speech, “For the World to Live Columbus Must Die”. He challenged our reluctance to let go of the legend of Columbus. I agree. It is time for the ignorance to end.

* I choose to lower case “god” when I am referring to the man-made construct of a brutal and vengeful god. I capitalize “God” if I refer to an impartial and benevolent force. I am of the opinion the god of manifest destiny needs to go the way of Columbus.

Wisconsin is now recognizing Indigenous People’s Day

Photo / poster compliments of Wikipedia Commons.

Lovers of the Earth Know

In between the downpours that have become autumn’s new norm, I heard a faint cry from the potato patch. The potatoes were calling me to come and get them. I know that is ridiculous and perhaps it was my stomach saying it was time for lunch, but regardless, I took the time to unearth those precious gems. Heavy spring rains made their planting late and now they seemed pushed to the surface by the swell of water that continues to fall from the sky.

In case you haven’t gotten the memo, the times they are a changin’. The name we have given it is climate change. And while politicians debate the causes and pundits advance notions of population control and promote the need to industrialize our food systems even more, the gardener and the harvester observe and respond to the roller coaster ride that we are now engaged in.

To say we are in challenging times is an understatement.

As if uncertainty is not enough, the media spin attempts to guide us with fear. The already prevalent notion of scarcity is driving our pocket books and our vision. When all the while, the earth remains quite capable of feeding us.

This is what the lover of the earth knows.

The lover of the earth knows that there is still time to learn from the seasons, to enrich the soil, to re-discover old wisdoms and re-plant old seeds. The lover of the earth knows that food of the earth is the best medicine, unadulterated and pure. And the lovers of the earth will go right on loving regardless of the climate upheaval, because we can.

The earth has many more secrets to reveal and we are capable of learning.

As for me, I’ll meet this new day with trust in my heart and hoe in hand.

Choose Clarity

What’s the dirtiest part of the human body? I know what you are thinking, but traditional people will tell you the dirtiest part of the body is the head. That’s due to uncontrolled thinking that can lead to depression and despair, anger and hate. To some, the washing of the hair and the head when done with intention and care, is a sacred and loving act. It’s designed to help a person rid unwanted and nagging thoughts. Intention and love are indeed powerful weapons in ridding darkness.

The Chinese also have this saying or so I have been told, “You can not keep the birds from flying around your head, but you can keep them from nesting there.” This appears to be another way of combating nasty thoughts. It implies two very important concepts: One is that you cannot stop the thoughts from coming to you and two is that while you cannot stop them, you still can choose what will alight upon you.

Fear based thinking is loaded with dark thoughts. And our culture is currently loaded with fear-based thinking. Not surprisingly our darkest thoughts generally cast aspersions on others while allowing our own nasty inclinations to go unabated.

Let’s face it we’re all plagued with this “devil” within.

But what if we take some tips from old wisdom? What if we choose to ignore the rumblings of our lessor selves and seek clarity instead of confusion? What if love and good intention can keep the birds of prey from nesting on our heads?

Bad habits can be reversed.

I heard an old friend and teacher, Prem Rawat, sum it up this way, “Our thoughts are a gift to us… but what we choose to think about is a gift we give ourselves.”

Open the gift of clarity. It is closer than we think.

Big Thanks to WDRT for airing these 2 minute commentaries, “Consider This”, every Thursday, 5:30pm CST. Community Radio. Support it.

Dear to Me

People of older generations may remember the phrase “dear to me”. It meant precious. Something precious was not to be wasted or treated carelessly. Today the word dear is rarely used in this way. It more often means “too expensive”.

So words change their meanings, but the origin of meaning does not change. There are things, people and places that are precious to me. I hold them in my heart with gratitude. And yes, I consider them “dear”.

WDRT is the community radio station that broadcasts this two-minute commentary I call “Consider This”. It is an opportunity for me to be engaged with my community in a very personal way and I feel the privilege and the honor of that.

The people who volunteer here at the station, the welcoming of diversity, and the outreach of community are precious. In a world of sound bites and spin, this station functions in a unique and genuine way. It provides a local, national and global connection that is one hundred percent driven by local people and is not corporate controlled.

That is increasingly rare.

WDRT is non-commercial. It means you are not being force-fed information for profit, but rather you are entertained, educated and welcomed into a community investment powered by your friends and neighbors.

During this week of WDRT’s fall pledge drive I heard someone say, “If you are hearing my voice you are part of this community.” That kind of welcoming and acceptance is juxtaposed to a world bent on polarization and on championing differences.

WDRT is precious. The opportunity to create and to participate in this active and vital community is available to everyone. For the past nine years dreams have become realities here. With your support WDRT will continue to thrive and to serve.

Thank you for listening and thank you for your support of this station.

Belonging

The need to belong is a deeply human aspiration. We wear the labels of belonging as badges of acceptance. To be accepted is also high on our scale of needs. The yearning to be welcomed and celebrated as a member of something is a strong human motivator. These were my thoughts as I watched the parade of flags at the recent Pride celebration in La Crosse. The flags are symbols of identity. They are in direct response to cultural disapproval and censorship.

Never quite comfortable in society’s boxes, I understand the urge to fly a new flag – and especially one that has not yet been pigeon holed into meaninglessness. So I marveled at the youth donning their flags determined to be unique, and challenging the status quo. It is good they are given a safe space to discover. And when the organization called “Free Mom Hugs” showed up in force to celebrate Pride, they added a touch of humanity and healing desperately needed. Too many gay youth are unwelcomed at home and these mothers giving hugs play an important role in reminding them that they are indeed loved for who they are.

Another coalescing of people that has heightened my observation skills are the numerous versions of Christianity. And of course there are the political affiliations that many cling to, which satisfy the need to belong while simultaneously separating us from others. The value and strength of community is undeniable. That can be witnessed at any sports event. I have yet to understand the value of separation.

I have found it far simpler to declare myself a human being and allow for the affiliation of “citizen of the Earth”. It seems to be a direct route to the source of the need to belong. It is certainly a satisfying one.

We remain one People, one Earth. We belong.

Tremendous thanks to WDRT for their continued supporting and for airing “Consider This”. You can hear my 2 minute commentaries every Thursday at 5:30 pm CST or listen via the web.

Inserted photo is of a memorial for murdered transgender women.

Gay flag compliments of wikipedia commons.

Author: Dena Eakles