WALKING BACKWARDS

 WALKING BACKWARDS

Tulip went out for her daily stroll around the neighbourhood the other day; but, this time she did it differently. She walked backwards. Sometimes going back in time can help us move forward better.

The idea came to her as she had just finished reading the chapter entitled People of the Seventh Fire. The entire book, Braiding SweetGrass, is full of extended thinking about how the world (the Earth) got to this point. Extended thinking or walking backwards for that matter, isn’t something everyone does. It’s difficult or too time consuming so many just walk on or run to the next post — faster than water flowing from a broken dam. They don’t seem to give a dam!

Tulip has “given a dam” about a lot of anomalies throughout her lifetime. She questions a lot. She shuns the “that’s the way it is” attitudes and tries to find sense in senseless decision making. 

The book in front of her is the first time she is faced with a mirror in which she sees a reflection of her mind on paper. Reading the chapters, and there are many, brings flashbacks of the shake and bake commercials where the actor quickly shakes the drumstick so the viewer doesn’t really see what’s being coated. 

“Hold on! Rewind! What’s under the coating?”

Braiding Sweetgrass is a unique “look again” book that might cause the readers to start the car and speed away, or it might cause the readers to lift their head from the sand, clear the gloss from their eyes, and step backwards in time to discover stuff, important stuff that has been bypassed or left behind. 

The world is in a rut. Too many beats have been skipped or dismissed. There’s been too much tipping over and tripping over two feet. People need to stop barreling forward along the same damaging trajectory. 

Mountains are falling. Fires are burning. Rivers are overflowing their banks. Animals are becoming extinct. Food no longer tastes like food. Chemicals are making people sick or killing them. Nature is disappearing. Climate change. Greed and competition have been given the lead. Avarice needs to stop.

Tulip is in position to take the backward walk. She is looking straight ahead at what was, placing one step behind the other, watching what’s behind her come forward. It becomes very much like a balancing act because if she strides too quickly, she tips or trips. It bears repeating: if she strides too quickly, she tips or trips. If she stops now and then, she regains her posture, smells the Sweetgrass (roses) and keeps moving, slowly stepping backwards but moving forward with a wealth of information that she may have ignored or overlooked. 

The exercise of walking backwards is weird and shaky. It is physical and cognitive. It’s like rewinding a visual and audio recording, and getting a different message. It clearly defines the difference between listening and hearing, and shows people take too much for granted. As such they dismiss commonsense and words of wisdom from respected and credible sources. Now’s the time to take back some control. 

For Tulip, the walking exercise is an easy pill to swallow because she is seeing things differently and hearing things differently. She is concentrating on what is and what is about to be, and thinking harder than ever, as she continues to take control by carefully placing one step behind the other. She stops suddenly to take it all in and the expression  “better late than never” bellows. Too much has been left behind. Too many questions left unanswered. Too many constructive concerns ignored. It is time to break and breathe.

Taking it all in slowly keeps her upright and steady. Her mind and body feel different: gifted, refreshed and enlightened. This morning walk, as well as that chapter and book, have given her energy (Qi) to keep moving ahead with an open mind. 

“Better late than never!”

After a few blocks of looking back while moving forward, the chapter Tulip just read, combined with all the chapters in the book, bring her to a decision making fork in the road. If people keep spinning forward as always, and if they keep striding forward too quickly, they will continue to tip and trip. What’s ahead of them will be a lot scarier, a lot more sad and definitely a lot more perplexing — if anyone is left to find out. She concludes that it would be best to not continue to ignore WISDOM and commonsense because  that road has proven to be a losing battle.

The book, Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Kimmerer, is a missalette of ultimate wisdom, practical experiences and long forgotten commonsense. The author is a decorated Indigenous scientist and professor. She wrote it for everyone and “for” everyone;  and, it is definitely a great read for every caring citizen of the Earth.