Wednesday, December 2, 2009

A Cherokee Mantra

When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced.
Live your life so that when you die, the world cries and you rejoice.

Cherokee Saying
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2 comments:

dotfoot said...

"Cherokee Mantra"? Curious to me - I've been Cherokee all my life and been around Cherokee all my life and I've never hear--wait, I might've heard something like it somewhere, but not as anything specific to Cherokee. Most of us are Baptist.

On first read I think of Mantra as a verbal syllabic string that one uses for meditation, right? Some of us meditate, but i didn't know we had an assigned, shared mantra. Taking a second to look it up I learn Mantra is a powerful syllable which forms the part of Hindu prayers. Good to know, though it seems awfully long and wordy for a mantra. Most of us are Baptists. There may well be a Hindu Cherokee or three, but I've never met one. Do you meditate?

Are you Cherokee? I notice you didn't ascribe ethnicity to any of your other homilies, sayings, jingoes and insights. Why is that? Seems like if an idea is worth writing down, it is worth ascribing it to a specific ethnicity, right?

Do you know a Cherokee who told you this was our mantra?

Or is this just another offensively "Pan-Indian Noble Red Man" schtick, something for us to have said in the teepees?

do you see where i'm coming from here? If it is Cherokee, is it Eastern Band, Oklahoma, Keetowah?

Or if a Cherokee friend told you this, maybe it could've been intro'ed as "something Jim says."

Or is this just a bunch of crap, meant to play up to stereotypes which objectify and caricaturize my kids?

Do tell?

December 10, 2009 at 11:56 PM
Dr. Crew said...

Hello dotfoot,
First of all thank you for taking the time to read portions of my blog
You know one of the problems in communicating via text is that it is such a poor communication medium. I do not know what your true intention is exactly when you commented on my post. I also do not know whether or not you are being serious or sarcastic or attempting to be humorous. All I can do is give you feedback on your post, again noting that I am clearly working from a position of incomplete knowledge of both your comment as well as the fact that I do not know you personally.
That being stated, I would like to respond to your questions as well as give you my perceptions of your comments.
First, your questions... Yes, I am a regular practitioner of meditation. I am a Quaker/Buddhist. I am a Doctor who has practiced psychtherapy and hypnotherapy for over 28 years. No, I am not Cherokee. I am actually American, and my parents are and were as well. My grandparents, however, were European; Irish, Swiss-German, Hungarian, and Italian
I got the information for the posting from a book entitled, "Insights For Living", by Jonathon Huie. No, I did not feel it necessary to footnote that information, nor did I feel it was necessary to research the claim that this quote was from the Cherokee people. If you wish to do that research, please be my guest. If you can find out that his information was incorrect, I would gladly post your findings on my blog.
As far as your questions as to whether I posted this quote to somehow objectify Native-Americans or the Cherokee people in any way, you could not be further from the truth. Clearly, you do NOT know me.
Lastly, I would like to provide some feedback on the flovor of your comments, at least my opinion of them. I find that your comments are very hostile and accusatory. Perhaps you are unaware of how your comments came across. I don't know. Agan, it is very difficult to know one's true intentions when typing.
If you would like to discuss this issue, ot any other issue with me further, please feel free to call me and we can chat. I assure you that I am a very gentle and caring person who certianly hs pure intentions. You can reach me at 631/880-2531.
Dr. Crew Lauterbach, Ph.D., LCSW-R, C.Ht., CMFT

December 11, 2009 at 10:45 AM

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