Native American Strong

In a sense, the American Indian lived a freer life than any other race. They had no boundaries, and many lived in teepees that were cool in the summer and warm in the winter. They moved south in cold weather and north when it was hot. They ate off the land and kept it in good condition without becoming slaves to it. They wore the very best furs and rode the best horses, and they worshipped God in the purest sense. Every morning the Cherokee prayed near the stream and then bathed in it - summer and winter. He protected his honor and that of his tribe. He did not litter the land nor contaminate the streams, and he fought when he had reason to fight. Because he lived so close to nature, he was something of the poet and loved deeply. These were Indians and they left us that legacy. ~ Who gave you the Countries that you now inhabit, and by what right do you possess them? ~

Human beings worry a great deal about what others think. It is a nagging worry that somehow the curtain that protects our privacy from the eyes of the world will suddenly drop and allow us to see all the things our pride has hidden. Why is it that we seemingly need to be clever in order to handle the world? Why can't we just live honestly and openly, without scheming and trying to appear that we are something we are not? The world is so heavy laden with priggish pride that the clean simple truth is lost in playing it cool. Why can't we quit being something pent up inside and be something like sunshine or showers right out here where we can enjoy it or get over it? Socrates said that the shortest and surest way to live with honor in the world is to be in reality what we would appear to be. And we may just as well, because if there isn't a good cake under all that frosting, someone is going to know it anyway. To drop all pretense and say with genuine honesty; "This is the way I am" would be to find a whole new way of enjoying the simplicity of being ourselves.