日本語は英語の下にありますよ
“Indigenous gratitude really is based upon honouring not just our spirit, but honouring our food, honouring our teachings around the food and how it nourishes our body, the creation stories around it and honouring our ancestors’ teachings”
TashaTanya Tacko (Interviewed by CBC’s Gordon Loverin – posted on Oct 11th 2021)
Source: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/indigenous-gratitude-thanksgiving-1.6207443
I often hear “Saying thank you” is a good thing to do. A mother tells her child, “What do you say?” when the child receive a gift. The child immediately say (almost with an automatic reaction) “Thank you”. And yet, no one really talks about what ‘saying thank you’ does to the person who says “thank you” or receive the gratitude.
Really, what does saying ‘Thank you’ mean? Saying or Feeling it?
Once upon a time in my life, I worked with young children. I often noticed something interesting when they were having little arguments.
A child hit another child. The hitter says to the hittee, “Sorry” with a puffed face. The hittee says, “It’s ok”.
Things seemed to be calmed at the moment, and yet, they often repeated the same thing. They seemed to end the argument by saying sorry as if understanding the ‘saying event’ as a closure. What does that mean to them, to educators, and to adults, and finally to society?
What does this situation construct?
They say sorry, perhaps, because adults such as teachers or their parents tell them to say ‘sorry’. Learning from this situation, I stopped asking young children to say “Sorry”; rather, I shared my idea of thinking what it means to say sorry. I thought with them about the feeling of the pain when the others’ hand touched the innocent body with violence.
Words travel. Concepts follow after. Words could depart from our mind and body and begin to do something the world. Saying “Thank you” might float around in the air without caring a real meanings to a person. Where do unique meanings for each one of us go?
What does really mean to say “Thank you” or show “gratitude”?
When I think of this, I think with the First Nations people wherein I live or lived before. They think differently and the difference makes dissimilarity in my mind and body. As Tasha speaks above, I might start to pay attention to my attitude towards “honouring” things right in front of my eyes. The moment that I see the food, people, life events of sad and happy. Anything I see are the life teacher and I learn with them. If/when I do things just because the calendar says so, then I am nobody. I am just being in a repetition that someone else determined to do without feeling personal reality that is just for the person.
Have you felt the world wherein you live for yourself?
When I think about making meaning, I also think of the meaning of life: What purpose did I come with when I came into the world? I believe my soul must know. Yet, “I” still have not yet figured things out.
What is the purpose for this life? For what I feel grateful for the only life we received for this time? I still have lots to learn; thus I will keep going.
As continuing my life, I thought of sharing some of the important meanings of our lives with others as not only friends and family, but also with the planet earth, and things living on it. For this, I might like the idea of creating “spaces” for people to think, feel, and experience the word that we say.
We are the words, thus think together.
For now, for me, to appreciate means to fill my heart with feeling of gratitude. Sometimes noticing people filling their heart and mind with money, materials, or even reputations. I used to care for these things, however, lately I begin to notice that feeling abundance in my life makes me a bit more awake.
I felt happy when the crisp morning mountain wind touched my cheek. I did not see it, rather I felt the unseen.
「感謝ってすると良い」とみんな話してる。
じゃ、何がそんなに良いのか？考えたことありますか？
ありがとうって言えばそれでいいのか？
以前に小さな子どもたちに携わる仕事をしていた時によくこのような光景を見かけた。お友達とモノの取り合いや、時には相手を叩いたり、ど突いたりして、「ごめんね！」と吐き捨てるように相手に言う。言われた相手も、「いいよ！」とムスッとした顔でいう。で、次の日にまた同じような喧嘩をする。
これって本当に「ごめんね」と言う意味を理解しているのだろうか？と不思議に思っていた。
おそらく、先生が「ごめんって言いなさい」と言うので、ただそれを言葉として言っているだけなんだろう。そう思い、私は決してごめんということを強制することを選択しなかった。それより、叩かれた子どもに痛いと感じること、それを自分以外の人にされることについて考えていただいた。その自分の目の前にある状況が何を見せてくれているのかをお互いに考えた。私も、その場にいて、その状況を経験しているわけだから
何か私にも学ぶことがあるのだろう。そう考えていた。
言葉は時に意味を持たずに一人歩きすることがある。『ありがとう』もそうだ。ありがとうと言っているだけで、その意味を考えないのは勿体無いことだと思う。カナダに住むようになってから、原住民の皆さんの考え方から知恵を得る機会が多くなった。
彼らの世界では、例えば、感謝祭などで家族で集まることを「みんながやっているイベントだからやり、みんなが食べているから七面鳥を食べる」という意味以上に、食べ物や、人、文化、自分の身の回りにあるもの、あること、いる人々に対して”敬う”というコンセプトを考えている。相手や周りに言葉で言い表せない感謝の気持ちを感じながら、これからの自分だけの人生だけではなく、子孫が周りに感謝して生きていくために、色々なものに敬意を示し、その態度を見せる。このようなことで初めて感謝の意を理解しているようだ。
私たちがこの世に生を受けて、死んでゆく。それは、何のためなんだろうか？
何かを学び、後世に何かを伝える義務があるならば、私は、この生きている一瞬にありがたいと感じそれを共有していける『場』を作っていければ、と思う。
ありがたい、と感じることは、私にとっては心を暖かい気持ちで満たしていくこと。それを死ぬまで続けること。物質で満たされたと思うことよりも、暖かい愛の気持ちで心が満タンになる感覚をできるだけ多くの瞬間で感じることに挑戦し続けよう、と思う。
Calicorico Life ♦︎ カリコリコ・ライフ 