Imagine
You ever buy a Lottery ticket and you think to yourself what would I do if I won? Would you invest? Would you buy a new house or car? Would you help friends and family? Charities?
I always took solace in the thought that I would open a Retirement Center for Native American Elders, not just any Native American Elder but those that have been forgotten, you know, the mixed bloods, the ones that no one else seems to want or claim. I caught myself wondering how could someone make life more pleasant for them and I realized that naturally the Elders would want their family around, and of course their Grandkids, and brothers and sisters and cousins would be nice too, and their friends, hmm…childhood friends. Can you imagine being 86 years old and knowing someone since first grade, for 80 years? WOW!
Then I thought it’s not a “Center” I am thinking of but a “Community,” and not just a Retirement Community, but a real live walking, talking, breathing “Community,” you know, a village as it were, with homes and a Center and a gathering place, and a garden for all to share; relatives caring for and helping relatives, friends helping friends. Is that so hard to imagine? Didn’t it use to be that way? Wasn’t there a time when that was “the norm?” How many of us can remember when that was the way of our Grandparents; along with not only our regular Aunts and Uncles but our Great Aunts and Uncles too! How many of us can remember our Grandparents living in towns so small that they weren’t even incorporated?
How many of us can remember going from home to home celebrating during the holidays, and everyone gathering at a relative’s house on weekends; and how many can remember sitting on a swing and thinking it was somehow special knowing that you were related to more than half the people living in that small Community?
You ever imagine what it would be like to recapture that? You ever imagine what it would be like to go back to that simpler life style? You ever imagine what it would be like if you could reclaim that way of life, reclaim that culture, that part of your heritage for your family? Have you? Have you ever imagined?
Robert Kennedy once said: There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask why? I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?
Perhaps we could say: There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why? There are those who dream of things the way they were, and ask why not?
Imagine.
You ever buy a Lottery ticket and you think to yourself what would I do if I won? Would you invest? Would you buy a new house or car? Would you help friends and family? Charities?
I always took solace in the thought that I would open a Retirement Center for Native American Elders, not just any Native American Elder but those that have been forgotten, you know, the mixed bloods, the ones that no one else seems to want or claim. I caught myself wondering how could someone make life more pleasant for them and I realized that naturally the Elders would want their family around, and of course their Grandkids, and brothers and sisters and cousins would be nice too, and their friends, hmm…childhood friends. Can you imagine being 86 years old and knowing someone since first grade, for 80 years? WOW!
Then I thought it’s not a “Center” I am thinking of but a “Community,” and not just a Retirement Community, but a real live walking, talking, breathing “Community,” you know, a village as it were, with homes and a Center and a gathering place, and a garden for all to share; relatives caring for and helping relatives, friends helping friends. Is that so hard to imagine? Didn’t it use to be that way? Wasn’t there a time when that was “the norm?” How many of us can remember when that was the way of our Grandparents; along with not only our regular Aunts and Uncles but our Great Aunts and Uncles too! How many of us can remember our Grandparents living in towns so small that they weren’t even incorporated?
How many of us can remember going from home to home celebrating during the holidays, and everyone gathering at a relative’s house on weekends; and how many can remember sitting on a swing and thinking it was somehow special knowing that you were related to more than half the people living in that small Community?
You ever imagine what it would be like to recapture that? You ever imagine what it would be like to go back to that simpler life style? You ever imagine what it would be like if you could reclaim that way of life, reclaim that culture, that part of your heritage for your family? Have you? Have you ever imagined?
Robert Kennedy once said: There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask why? I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?
Perhaps we could say: There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why? There are those who dream of things the way they were, and ask why not?
Imagine.
