Wisdom

[thisearthlyride]

We are part of the earth and it is part of us.
The perfumed flowers are our sisters;
the deer, the horse, the great eagle,
these are our brothers.
The rocky crests, the juices in the meadows, the body heat of the pony, and man–
all belong to the same family.

So, when the Great Chief in Washington sends word that
he wishes to buy land, he asks much of us...

If we decide to accept, I will make one condition:
The white man must treat the beasts of this land as his brothers.
I am a savage and I do not understand any other way.
I’ve seen a thousand rotting buffaloes on the prairie,
left by the white man who shot them from a passing train.
I am a savage and I do not understand how the smoking
iron horse can be more important than the buffalo that
we kill only to stay alive.

What is man without the beasts?
If all the beasts were gone, man would die
from a great loneliness of spirit.
For whatever happens to the beasts,
soon happens to man.
All things are connected...

This we know:
The earth does not belong to man;
man belongs to the earth.
This we know.
All things are connected
like the blood which unites one family.
All things are connected.
Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth.
Man did not weave the web of life,
he is merely a strand in it.
Whatever he does to the web,
he does to himself.

-Chief Seattle