After all we’ve read about and discussed concerning unity, speciesism, and respect in class, I still felt that the ideas and themes of this selection of Black Elk Speaks were completely unfamiliar, alien almost. It sort of made me sad. The size and scope of Black Elk’s world is at once very contained and epic, contained because each sentence is centered on nature and spirituality and epic because our world is so....real and matter of fact in comparison. There’s really no other way to put it.
Black Elk speaks of a world so centered on dreams and visions that he sometimes has a hard time distinguishing whether his experiences are real or not. I believe that our world has something to learn from this mindset. When I have a dream, I am often cautioned to find a more practical version of it or am told to throw it out entirely. I’ve never understood why we are encouraged to “settle,” especially in a country full of people who came here searching for something better than they had before: shouldn’t we be listening to that cheesy phrase that’s been floating around since we before we can remember—shoot for the moon, and if you don’t make it you’ll land among the stars? (Or something like that...) Black Elk’s world is not like that, at least I don’t think it is. He listens to his dreams so completely that they shape all of his future actions and he holds great stock in their power. While I was reading through Black Elks’ vision (specifically “The Great Vision” chapter), I kept comparing it to the leadership vision we were supposed to have thought about for P4, and I tried to pinpoint a few things that I thought were the essential ingredients for his leadership vision.
1. Outside powers. Black Elk receives the aid of many things throughout his vision which show that he cannot go through with it alone. He has the advice of the Six Grandfathers, for example, and is given the powers associated with the various objects like the bow and arrow. The section in this chapter about the war is a particularly vivid example of the power these objects have on conquering problems. When Black Elk transfigures into rain, for example, he is able to defeat a great force: “it was drouth [sic] that [he] had killed with the powers that the Six Grandfathers gave [him]...” (viii) (I’m assuming that means drought?) I thought the battle section was a little graphic and out of character until I realized what he was vanquishing: drought, a force we are not able to defeat. I think Black Elk’s reliance on these powers can be taken to illustrate the importance of help, in whatever form, when we are trying to lead or tackle problems.
Black Elk speaks of a world so centered on dreams and visions that he sometimes has a hard time distinguishing whether his experiences are real or not. I believe that our world has something to learn from this mindset. When I have a dream, I am often cautioned to find a more practical version of it or am told to throw it out entirely. I’ve never understood why we are encouraged to “settle,” especially in a country full of people who came here searching for something better than they had before: shouldn’t we be listening to that cheesy phrase that’s been floating around since we before we can remember—shoot for the moon, and if you don’t make it you’ll land among the stars? (Or something like that...) Black Elk’s world is not like that, at least I don’t think it is. He listens to his dreams so completely that they shape all of his future actions and he holds great stock in their power. While I was reading through Black Elks’ vision (specifically “The Great Vision” chapter), I kept comparing it to the leadership vision we were supposed to have thought about for P4, and I tried to pinpoint a few things that I thought were the essential ingredients for his leadership vision.
1. Outside powers. Black Elk receives the aid of many things throughout his vision which show that he cannot go through with it alone. He has the advice of the Six Grandfathers, for example, and is given the powers associated with the various objects like the bow and arrow. The section in this chapter about the war is a particularly vivid example of the power these objects have on conquering problems. When Black Elk transfigures into rain, for example, he is able to defeat a great force: “it was drouth [sic] that [he] had killed with the powers that the Six Grandfathers gave [him]...” (viii) (I’m assuming that means drought?) I thought the battle section was a little graphic and out of character until I realized what he was vanquishing: drought, a force we are not able to defeat. I think Black Elk’s reliance on these powers can be taken to illustrate the importance of help, in whatever form, when we are trying to lead or tackle problems.
Black Elk was able to use the power of the rain cloud to tackle a great problem: drought.
2. To know his future. Black Elk also is able to gain some perspective in a way that we do not have the privilege to hear by speaking to his future self, the man who as he said he knew, “was myself with all the years that would be mine at last.” (vii) While we are not able to receive advice from our future selves as Black Elk did and learn that everything is going to turn out alright, we can achieve similar results with confidence and a mind centered on our goals and the type of people we want to be. Just as we were given the opportunity to do with our leadership visions, we should constantly be thinking about where we’re going in life (not forgetting to enjoy the present moment too of course!) and look forward to what the future brings. Black Elk was able to achieve his vision through the wisdom of his future self and the knowledge that he was going to become a good person. We can achieve our visions through a similar understanding, with foresight and faith in ourselves.
Ugh I could not find the picture I wanted, but this sort of gets it across. We should keep in mind our "future" self after the actions we take.
http://www.speedysigns.com/images/decals/jpg/H/406/439.jpg
While I thought a lot about speciesism and how different cultures can be as I read through this selection of Black Elk Speaks, what jumped out to me the most was a reminder of our leadership vision. We weren’t able to discover our leadership vision in the same, grand way Black Elk did, but there are still many lessons we can learn from his experience.
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