By Stephen C. Schultz
Editors Note: This is another excerpt from some of the material that teens and young adults learn while at RedCliff Ascent. Students gain physical competency, develop emotional insight and demonstrate improved maturity. This particular segment provides a thoughtful perspective for teens and young adults who have been raised in relative comfort.
Earth
Many
“primitive” peoples considered the earth to be their true mother and the sky
their father, and that there was a grandfather, (Creator) somewhere beyond it
all. In this you can see a basic
difference between the worldview of the old ones and of our own. They thought they belonged to the earth; we
believe that the earth belongs to us.
You wouldn’t cut off your mother’s hair, or drain out her life’s
blood. You wouldn’t blow smoke in your
fathers face, or poison his breath. Yet
we have no hesitation in destroying anything that is merely a possession. We seem to have this notion that we can just
run down to Walmart and get another planet when we use this one up.
Those
who lived a hunter/gatherer existence were usually pretty low impact, they
didn’t stay in one place too long, and they didn’t make very much that wasn’t
bio-degradable (sound familiar?). They were also nomadic in lifestyle, they
followed the herds and the seasons in the most efficient way possible. For instance, a small family group might
shelter in a deep valley during the winter; then, as spring warmed the
lowlands, they could follow the new growth and young, vitamin-rich greens up
the slopes as the snows receded. Then
spend summer in the cooler highlands.
Finally, as fall arrives, the family follows the frost and deer and
berries down slope until they are back in a sheltered valley again. And this was the way life was, once upon a
time.
Your
experience in the program will also follow the nomadic lifestyle. Although
there are items given to you upon entering the program, such as the food you
eat, there is still a strong reliance on the earth that you will experience.
The water you drink, the wood you gather to stay warm, and the elements that
create comfort or miserable conditions are fundamentally a part of the program.
As you come to understand your reliance on the earth perhaps your appreciation
for what it provides will grow. Simple luxuries like lying on a sofa will take
on new meaning.
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