Braiding sweatgrass

            Recently in class the main topic has been about the nature of giving gifts. This concept has taken over a new meaning from the original meaning that the indigenous people gave it. Originally, this concept was meant to strengthen and further relationships with the offering of a simple gift such as food.  Through recent years, the world has turned that simple idea of doing something for another without the intent of getting anything in return, into a money driven, supply and demand society with every intention to always get some form of payment back after giving a “gift”. One story we read was “The Gift of Strawberries” which captures the values that gift giving should return to. She talks of the importance and value that those gifts have because the gifts are given with meaning and purpose. I love how she talks of these concepts because I feel our generation and others in the past, have lost this sense of empathy in our day to day lives. We have a new untold ritual in our society, which is that money is the ultimate form of gratitude. Before money came and took over the world, gratitude came from the heart and it was enough to say thank you, yet back then those words meant something to people. Now the first thing you do when you buy something is to pay the man then say, “thank you” as if saying “thanks for taking my money and giving me my meaningless commodities”. I would love it if the world went back to genuine “thank you’s” and everyone’s words were trustworthy and worth listening to. I’m disgusted at the lack of gratitude our generation has for gifts. Recently I had given my close cousin a necklace of a dolphin tale just like mine and the look on her face said it all. Actually, the absolute lack of gratitude or thanks she had on her face truly showed me that this generation has lost its way so drastically that even close family celebrations and gift giving has no meaning anymore. It saddens me to see this lack of meaning, but at the same time it gives me hope. For what is dead and ground into the earth, as the Silko essay we read says, “At a later time they may again become what they once were”.  I have hope that one day seeds of true gratitude will grow again from the graves that we have buried this wonderful gift six feet under our feet.