Clay Man With No Ears

I don’t know about you, but I have the hardest time finding butterfly moments these days looking at the pain and misery inflicted on people right outside our door steps. I am not saying I am no longer experiencing joy with the kids and at work, but everything feels tainted right now. So I was not even sure whether I wanted to send out a message at all at this point in time. The news tickers are bursting with updates, lots of humanitarian projects are bubbling up on social media, everything seems to have been said and it feels like I am lacking the right words to express my feelings anyway. 

Whenever that happens, I turn to poetry instead. For days, a line from a poem by Joy Harjo has been ringing in my ears: «(…) a clay man with no ears.» Here is the full poem – nota bene written by a Native American poet in 2008.
 

Rabbit Is Up to Tricks
by Joy Harjo

In a world long before this one, there was enough for everyone,
Until somebody got out of line.
We heard it was Rabbit, fooling around with clay and wind.
Everybody was tired of his tricks and no one would play with him;
He was lonely in this world.
So Rabbit thought to make a person.
And when he blew into the mouth of the crude figure to see
What would happen,
The clay man stood up.
Rabbit showed the clay man how to steal a chicken.
The clay man obeyed.
Rabbit showed him how to steal corn.
The clay man obeyed.
Then he showed him how to steal someone else’s wife.
The clay man obeyed.
Rabbit felt important and powerful.
Clay man felt important and powerful.
And once that clay man started he could not stop.
Once he took that chicken he wanted all the chickens.
And once he took that corn he wanted all the corn.
And once he took that wife, he wanted all the wives.
He was insatiable.
Then he had a taste of gold and he wanted all the gold.
Then it was land and anything else he saw.
His wanting only made him want more.
Soon it was countries, then it was trade.
The wanting infected the earth.
We lost track of the purpose and reason for life.
We began to forget our songs. We forgot our stories.
We could no longer see or hear our ancestors,
Or talk with each other across the kitchen table.
Forests were being mowed down all over the world.
And Rabbit had no place to play.
Rabbit’s trick had backfired.
Rabbit tried to call the clay man back. 
But when the clay man wouldn’t listen,
Rabbit realized he’d made a clay man with no ears.

Everything has been said on every channel, and still every voice counts. Let’s be vocal about the values we want to stand up for, so hopefully history will stop repeating itself.

In case you are still looking for ways to do good and support people who just had a crappy deck of life cards dealt, I listed some resources below that I think are great ways to understand what’s happening and to show up for people in need. 

Lots of love, 
Tanja

This text was first published in my though-letter Tanja’s Butterflies (March Edition 2022 – Part 1). If you are interested in receiving the next editions in your inbox with additional resources, you can subscribe here.