Popsy said that Crazy Bull & Custer were born around the same time period and that many intriguing parallels connected their life stories (aside from the bloodshed and the battles, of course). "But, Crazy Bull wasn't a leader," he said. "In fact, Indians weren't leaders, at all. They were individuals who didn't lead." "Maybe, they just had a different value set," I responded.
Personally, I've never wanted to lead followers. In college, I would write,
"I could never follow a leader, nor lead followers," on bathroom stall walls. My ex and I always met in this middle ground - of natural rebellion, of having been born rebels without a cause long after the popular culture fad had faded.
More recently, though, I've been letting go of my desire to react defensively to life around me. These days, I am simply trying to accept life for what it is. Not that I know - it just simply IS.
Nonetheless, an urgent call keeps arising from deep within my psyche. It's melodic pang keeps chirping out an epitaph, demanding that I keep showing up, putting one foot in front of the other and doing my work. "Stand up and be counted," I hear. However, I still don't desire to stand with others who quickly follow what is being sold - even if it is me who is doing the selling. Rather, all I ask is that questions are asked, a myriad of answers are ruminated upon and that, regardless of whatever "truth" is chosen, there is always a recognition that it is relative and ever-changing.
I like to think that Native American peoples had it "right," and that they knew just as I now believe:
that WE ARE ALL LEADERS HERE.
So, I am hoping that you will join me in grasping hands, raising our voices, lifting each other up and shaking the Earth so that its cosmic ripples sustain us for another 40+ years.
Yes, indeed.
