Reverence for Nature

There are four jobs posted on the HP website that have the same title and the same description, but different requisition numbers. I applied for all of them. The HP employment site is better than most, but it is almost impossible to find which jobs I am qualified for or what the job really is through all the HR jargon. The titles are long, and complicated, like "ITO Srv Delivery Rep IV." Which is higher, a I or a IV? Am I supposed to know what ITO stands for? It is easy to apply, once you have all of the information entered, and I am sure HP is just inundated with applications all of the time. Then they probably have some scanning program by keyword that kicks you out before a human being ever looks at your application. I wish I could talk to someone at HP, show them my experience, and have them tell me what jobs apply, if any. They would have to take the time to talk to me, but would have one application instead of four. HR really deteriorated with the extensive use of the Internet.

Otherwise, I played phone tag with the SCORE rep, did some drawings for more paintings, and attempted to clean all of the cat hair out of my studio. In my 6 months that I lived with no TV, I appear to have lost my TV restraint. I did not watch TV much at Dad's. I felt bad leaving my cats by themselves all the time in the studio and there was no TV in there. Now I turn on the TV when I brush the cats in the evening and then often I don't turn it off until I go to bed. That I now have Turner Classic movies doesn't help. I hope my TV issues are just a phase.

Applying for jobs isn't very interesting to write about and as much as I hate to move on from the enlightenment topic Nonconformity, the next one is even better. The next topic is Reverence for Nature, with an initial quote from Chief Seattle,

There is no quiet place in the white man's cities. No place to hear the unfurling of leaves in spring, or the rustle of an insect's wings. (But perhaps it is because I am a savage and do not understand. The clatter only seems to insult the ears.) The Indian prefers the soft sound of the wind darting over the face of a pond and the smell of the wind itself, cleaned by a midday rain, or scented with pinon pine. The air is precious to the red man for all things share the same breath, the beast, the tree, the man. (The white man does not seem to notice the air he breathes.) Like a man dying for many days he is numb to the stench.

I added parenthesis around the lines that appear on-line, but were left out in the book. The only problem is, according to Snopes, these words were not written by Chief Seattle, but by screenwriter Ted Perry for the 1972 film, Ecology. There is only one legitimate quote attributed to Chief Seattle, which is pretty much, thanks for buying our land.

There are several more Native American Indian quotes in the book. I could not find the quote as printed in the book by Oren Lyons, known as the Onondaga Faithkeeper, regarding how his people think seven generations ahead when making decisions. Oren Lyons did make a speech to the UN in 1992 that includes bits of the quote. There is a quote from Wolf Song of the Abenaki tribe about the sacred hoop of life. I could find nothing about Wolf Song on-line, except for a bunch of people using him and parts of this quote for their own purposes, including art and sappy personal spiritual journals. Then there are two quotes by Walking Buffalo about nature's university and living in cities being an artificial existence. According to the site I could find, Walking Buffalo is a childhood name for a Sioux War Chief known as Red Wing, and his history on-line did not match the background given for him in the book. There is a quote by Luther Standing Bear about all life containing the essence of God, but now I am so disappointed in the illegitimacy of all of these quotes that I'm not going to look him up.

Wow, that was enlightening. The supposed spiritual quotes from Native American Indians are mostly created or abused for someone's own modern purpose, except for the misquoted Oren Lyons, who appears to have abused his own Native American status for environmentalism.

Oh well, the topic is a good one. Serenity can be found in nature. Observing the beauty and the power of nature can help me remain humble. Walking with my feet on the ground helps me feel a connection to life that I do not feel in a crowded city where sometimes my feet touch nothing but cement. I guess I don't need any quotes or poetry to know this, I just need to go on a walk or a hike. I now live somewhere where in 5 minutes I can be out of the city and my feet touch the ground in my backyard every day.