I’m
not religious anymore but I don’t deny that I have an innate spirituality that I
sometimes find embarrassing because I like to think of myself as a logical and
rational person. One doesn’t have to exclude the other, of course, but you know
what it’s like when you want to believe in
something without actually knowing shit…
So
today I was starting to write about the history of the field called Specialpedagogik and started off with
the customary “people have been born different through all times blah blah…”
and “society have handled these things differently depending on culture and so
on so forth…” and started to make examples. One of which was about Native
Americans (a broad generalization of course because all tribes are different
even though they also have similarities) who I’ve read somewhere thought that “crazy”
people were either obsessed by demons so you’d better be nice to them or bad
shit happens, or that they’re special to the gods and thus should be treated
kindly- in other words I wanted to say that Native Americans treat people that
are different with respect as opposed to some cultures where they were not only
hidden away but also sometimes killed in infancy because people didn’t want to
waste resources on children that might not make it anyway, be in pain and peril
all their life, or would never become “useful”.
Then
I decided I needed documented sources to claim these things and not just
hearsay…
That’s
when it happens. First I searched on the words “native american attitudes…” and
ended up with studies of how “they” do in school and society at large;
statistics for the mental health of the group compared to other groups and so
on. I found one article describing the “mentality” of the Native American
people and I was like “Hey! They’re describing me!”
Is
there a whole nation of people like me? (Like the Kurds I suppose that natives of
many countries could be called a “nation” without a nation) Anyways; I’ve
always been attracted to Native Americans and their (old) lifestyle, wishing to
be one of them and dreaming of visiting some of their own festivals or even
living with them for a time. Perhaps I was a Native American in some of my previous
lives? I really want to believe that…
After
that I found a book (which I had to buy…) about Native American communities and
their views on health and disability. Several things they described of the
views and attitudes Native Americans have of disabled people made the hairs
stand up all over my body and tears come to my eyes. For example; they don’t
have negative words for disabilities! Nothing like “cripple” or “idiot” or “crazy”.
Being different is not bad. It’s just a way to be. A person with scoliosis for example,
may be described as short and in pain, even named after how they look because
of it, but at the same time they are not viewed as abnormal or wrong. They’re
not hidden away and discarded but respected and saluted as full worthy members
of the tribe anyway; your membership is not dependent on your abilities to
contribute or how you contribute. You’ll
still be fed and loved because you’re a fellow human being. They don’t focus on
what you can’t do and fault you for
it, instead they let people do what they can and want to. No pressure to be in
a certain way or do things a certain way. Different is accepted. I wish our own
society could be that way.
As
I understood the text it also said that many Native American tribes believe
that the spirit (our soul) decide which body it want to be born to- with every
complication that may follow. In other words we are, as individuals,
responsible for who and what we are because our spirit chose the body for us. It’s up to every person to accept the
challenge of the body and mind and do whatever task they were born to do with
those conditions- decided by their own spirit. The more difficult the
complication of the body or mind the stronger the spirit. It seems that Native
Americans then believe in reincarnation, just like Buddhists, and that we’re here
(in life) to learn. I also like the idea that it’s my own spirit that decided
this body for me- not god or anything like that (or perhaps it’s the same
thing?).
What
I like the better is that many Native Americans then see the spirit as healthy
and complete no matter your physical or mental status. They don’t look at
someone and think: “you’re not complete, you’re not as you should’ve been if
you’d been made right”. Because you are made right. Your spirit chose to be
this way. All respect to that.
(at
the same time though, some tribes also believe that you can cause disabilities
in a child by, for example, chopping wood from a tree that has been hit by
lightening because lightening is a such a strong energy it may have negative
effects upon your life…)
There
was a story of a person born with a condition that made the body stay as small
as a child’s, caused blindness and a very limited mental capacity. A medicine
man came to visit this person and spoke with them, opening with: “I do not wish
to speak to the body or the mind. I wish to speak with the spirit”, and they
connected and “spoke” for a while. Afterwards he was asked why he bothered and
he said: “The body may not be able to respond, nor the mind comprehend, but the
spirit knows and understands everything”.
This,
to me, concludes everything I feel about people. Especially those I meet and
care for in my line of work, but everyone else too, even animals. No matter the diagnosis
or difficulties in life; you, and I, are always a whole person, even if I lost some limb or
ability- or never had it to begin with. There may not be any “higher” reason
for the conditions I struggle with other than it’s a life experience that I need to deal
with. It won’t go away because other people may feel awkward to face it or
because I hate what they feel about it and what their feelings make me feel about
myself; but my feelings about it, and
abilities to handle it, may change depending on my perspective. It also makes a
difference to people around me how I see them.
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