WISDOM OF THE SAGES
EPISODE XII - WINTER 2014
EPISODE XII - WINTER 2014
Hello People of the World;
Here I am typing this from the comfort of my little
sister home on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. Here we are at the end of
Twenty-Fourteen. Who would have thought we had come so far? The year is almost
over and here we are, YET AGAIN, patting ourselves on the back like we
accomplished something.
Now, POOF! I am back in Chicago wrapping up what
could be the final Wisdom of the Sages for a while. I am having a tough time
putting this together but we shall see by the end of this what is next for this
web log. Right now it has dropped to 10-degrees and all the fakers trying to
act like it is not big thing now. Yet they say this after weeks of fairer
weather.
Back in Wyoming, where I just was, 10-degrees is
the fact of life. You want to see people acting like the cold weather is no big
thing? Go live on the Wind River Reservation every winter, then go back to your
warm apartments and know that the weather is the weather. It is nothing now
days to live through the weather…
Let’s get this edition started, shall we?
1:[ First
item of the Month: I
am constantly amazed at how fucking Awesome we think we are all the time, that
we, ourselves, as individuals, think we are the epitome of humanity that we
constantly think our own small shitty little opinions about such unimportant
things as shooting cellphone images in portrait versus landscape will suddenly
change the dichotomy of how humanity functions in such nonsensical arenas. “I
am AWESOME so my opinion has to count for something. My opinion is THE CHANGE I
want to see happen in the world.”
I mean, look at ANY Facebook status…. Any…. Go
look…. Then, get over yourself….
2:[ My Truthfulness Stuffs: Updates
from my other Truthfulness Projects:
+ NAMELESS: The Authentic and Magical Ledger
Art of EW3
A Treatise on American Indian Art
“All you care
about is money. This city deserves a better class of artist. And I’m going to
give it to them.”
I have come up with a name and subject for my art
showing in April:
ICONOCLASM – Native Art of a non-Native Nature – it
is about knowing yourself as an artist and not selling out your culture by
asking the question: can you represent your tribe without using anything
cultural?
I will be posting the Call for Artist announcement
very soon on Chicago Artists Resource.
Unfortunately, due to funding constraints, I have
to use local artists, but….
To quote the great man, ‘It’s not about money. It’s about sending a message…’.
+ The Five Six SEVEN
Hypocrisies of Native America:
(Because
Seven is a sacred number):
I think I know why some Natives get snooty about
“Coffee Shops”. For so long society has been Othering Native cultures, turning
them into something historical that tribes are never taken seriously in modern
society. So, when a Native person feels that they have ownership and authority
over something as stupid as what type of coffee to drink and where, they run
with it never thinking that they are perpetuating the othering of people who do
not do the same things you do….
NEXT MONTH’S
TRUTHFULNESS:
Ego and
_____?
Let me know what I should
cover next in my series on Truthfulness.
3:[ More MOVIE TIME ADVENTURES:
+ I have come to not care about the works of
Quentin Tarantino, but Char has. I think he peaked with “Jackie Brown” and the
long gap to “Kill Bill vol. 1” only saw the ebb of his talents. But that does
not stop any from liking his newer films. In this hipster generation where
recognizing callbacks to past pop culture is the norm, without experiencing the
history of it or creating something new for their own generation. I came to the
conclusion that Tarantino is like Bacon. It starts with a flash in the pan, a
lot of heat, but the longer you stew the chewier and not-good tasting it is.
The smells remind you of past memories, the smell of mom’s kitchen, but once
bacon has overcooked, it can still taste good but it is way past its freshness.
Tarantino is like bacon….
+ My annual BEST OF… List is will soon be posted at
the newly revamped WOS Reviews Blog. Stay tuned….
4:[ My December Trip to
Wyoming: Was great. Thank to Val and Dan for the ticket home. Elvira and Andy
for putting me up. Thanks to my brothers Allen, Forrest, Ken and Dalco for
taking time to see me. Thanks for all my nieces and nephews for being awesome.
This trip made me realize many things about myself…. More in the last item….
5:[ Ah yes, settle in Dear
Readers for more of:
Adventures in
the Coffee Shop and/or on the CTA!
+ Do we really need “Oprah Chai Tea”? I mean, just
asking….
+ I think it is very funny to hear Baristas trying
to explain to the public riffraff just how fucking awesome they really are. “We
all hold different degrees….” Because you know, they are all too interesting a
person to have a shitty job….
6:[ Overheard at “Rifftrax
Live: Santa Claus”: So after a couple of hours of fun and laughter with one of
their best shows in a while, I was walking behind this couple. The dude pointed
at the large “Annie” display in the hallway.“She was in ‘Beasts of the Southern
Wild”’, which is a really good movie about How the Other Half Lives in the
aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, now she’s doing “Annie”.
They were talking about Quvenzhané Wallis of
course. But, look, first, if you are saying “How the Other Half Lives”, you
have no fucking clue of what you’re talking about. Next, how dare you think
that this “little black girl” should be entertaining you in the way you want instead
of doing what she wants.
People….
7:[ And now Wisdom of the
Sages presents:
“An Ever-growing List of Things That MUST Stop!”
+ I never understood why Colored Marshmallows
exist. Every holiday they come out with corresponding marshmallow colors; i.e.
red and green for Christmas, etc. Yet, every time I eat a red marshmallow, I am
always disappointed that it does not taste like fruit or anything other than
marshmallow. At a function, I popped a great one in my mouth expecting it to
taste like mint or something. Nope, it tasted like a marshmallow. You cannot
color an oft-eaten snack and not flavor it. Really. That needs to stop.
+ I understand trying to be artistic. But why is it
that most Nuevo-artistes think butchering something already perfect is saying
something “edgy”? Can’t they think up something original for themselves? But,
seeing Calvin & Hobbes being butchered in Dollop Coffee Shop? That shit
must stop….
8:[ Have you ever see a
stranger who resembles someone you know? I saw this fellow in Panera Bread the
other night that looked like one of my co-mentors. It made me wonder if he saw
someone who looked like me?
9:[ From the “This Just In” Department: Guess what?
The movie “The Interview” was eventually released on the day it was supposed to
be release. All I can say is: What a fucking great marketing gimmick, I mean,
campaign by Sony. Pretend to be hacked to get widespread feedback on your
shitty superhero movie plans and also promote the hell out of your dumb comedy,
selling it like NOT seeing it is a threat to our freedom.
Damn, we’re stupid….
10:[ Last Item of the Month:
My Useless
Self: Ego & My Final Reveal
This is what I have been building up to. My recent trip made me realize something about
myself that I have been living with these past 5 or 6 years: I am a
non-traditional person. I mean this in terms of religion versus self-growth.
Spiritually, I am okay with what I know and do not know. I am happy to be wrong
as I do try to keep my ego out of every aspect of my life. It is pure ego to
try to make people think the way you do and that the world should operate the
exact way you think.
I have to say now that I am putting my trust in
discovering new knowledge and learning in science and reason. Yet, through my
trip to Wyoming I have found that some tradition and cultural practice does
have a place in society. Maybe this is in contradiction to my earlier position
on balance. I can live with that.
So, I am now renouncing my religiosity probably to
the dismay of my family, particularly my sisters. But I do not do this to
demean them as Religion is very important to them and I am not, nor should I be
trying to force them to my point of view. That would be wrong. To expect them
to see things the way I see them would be contrary to my ideals. But that is who I am now, I hope they understand. I am not the same person who left the rez in 1999.
I am still open to learning everything I can, it is
just that I do not feel I am a religious person anymore, even more than that
lately. You can draw your own conclusions from there. But as I said earlier, I am not afraid of being wrong. That is key in learning new things.
That is where ego must be put away. That is where I stand now days with my personal quest for knowledge. I hope I
still have friends after this and that they understand where I am coming from.
Well,
that will do it for this month, for this year.
Again, you are invited to comment, correct, even,
contradict anything you read here on Wisdom of the Sages. I am sure you will. As I stated before,
this may be it for a while but I am glad that I am able to post on the last day
of 2014. It has been a great run. Maybe I will see you at
the end of January. We will see. Let me know how you have been. Take care and
be safe in Twenty-fifteen.
I’ll do my best. We all should….
Until Next Time, “I try to show the schemers how
pathetic their attempts to control everything really are.”
2014 Ernest M. Whiteman III
