Real Apache, my butt.

As I was thinking on topics to write about for this blog, I realized that there is so much more American Indian culture surrounding me than I realized. From dream catchers hanging in the rear-view mirrors in friend's cars, to the foccasins ("fake moccasins") that hipsters wear to show that they are earthy..... imitations of televised American Indian culture is everywhere around me and until now I've never stopped to notice it. The most striking example that I've come across recently was a particular magnet that my mother gave me a few years ago. It's been on my fridge for years now and I've never really given it much thought other than the fact that it makes me all warm and cozy inside every time I read it. It goes something like this:

Now you will feel no rain,
For each of you will be shelter to the other.
Now you will feel no cold,
For each of you will be warmth to the other.
Now there is no more loneliness,
For each of you will be companion to the other.
Now you are two bodies,
But there is one life before you.
Go now to your dwelling place,
To enter into the days of your togetherness.
And may your days be good and long upon the earth.

Turns out, this Apache blessing isn't even real. I was trying to look up the history of it and I found that it was actually written for the 1950 novel Blood Brother by Elliot Arnold. When I discovered this, I felt cheated. Here my mother and I thought that we were reading something very spiritual, meaningful, and culturally impacting, but no. I don't know who I was mad at, either. Was it whoever created the magnet? Was it Arnold who made up the "blessing"? Or was I mad at myself for being so naive to actually believing it?


The more I thought about it, the more my attention turned to wondering why I believed that it was real and why I liked the blessing so much. Growing up, my mother (on of the fore-mentioned closet hippies of my hometown) surrounded herself with a lot of American Indian memorabilia. By this I mean that she had a lot of Indian music, jewelry, books on Native spirituality, and I honestly believed that she internalized somewhat that she felt native herself. I can often remembering her taking me on hikes in the woods and explaining that the woods had healing powers.... something that I don't disagree with now, but back then I thought she had sipped too much special juice. What my tangent is trying to explain is that there is something very comforting and peaceful that my mother finds when she taps into her spiritual side. She is very much connected to nature and she has a very deep, romantic pull for the American Indian culture that respects it too. I find that it's more than just respect, though, but a intricate, observable, tangible connection and American Indians are rejoicing in that revelation. 


Maybe this is why I believed that the blessing on the magnet was real. Even though it wasn't authentic, by reading the words I was still able to tap into something inside of myself and find that peace, that happiness, that joy. I often like to think of this whenever I read the Bible, especially Genesis. But that is another blog for another day....