Nishtha : Imaginative Mellifluous Philosopher

What America IS and What America MEANS

Nishtha said Dec 21, 2006, 9:14 PM:
 

After reading Martha's and Nicole's responses to other posts I have contributed here, I decided to pick up dear Jacob's book and see what page would open before me… I believe this is called libromancy…. ;-)

What America Is and What America Means
And yet America still means hope. Within the “world” that is America as it actually is, there waits another America, another world. Within, behind what America is there lies what America means. We are naive only when we confuse the two, when our feeling of hope is directed toward the outer America that  we perceive with the senses, rather than the America we grasp with the mind and the heart. Because this other America seems powerless or elusive does not mean it is not real. Because America betrays its ideals is no reason to reject the ideals themselves. We do not live in correspondence with the greater life hidden within us; but that is no reason to deny that this hidden life exists and calls to us.

My Inspiration - an “A-ha!” moment….
I grew up in upstate New York, a land that was first occupied by the Iroquois Confederacy before being settled by the early Dutch and German immigrants. Before being handed over to the English, New York was known as New Amsterdam. My affinity with the Dutch precedes my own life…. It's no wonder I've found Zaadz to plant and cultivate!

My Motivation
In 7th grade, I learned of the Five Nations; the Seneca, the Cayuga, the Onondaga, the Oneida, the Mohawk (and Wikipedia has just informed that there was a sixth tribe, added later, called the Tuscarora). I learned that extended families lived together in longhouses, that families were matrilineal and matriarchal, that they believed in a Great Spirit and in the sacredness of Nature. I'm remembering the reverence I held for them then. I'm motivated to search for ways to incorporate their voice in this conversation about “American Soul.”