How to become an indigenous, activity, place-based thinker able to understand larger problems in the cluttered world of today.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Knowing By Listening
How much do you know by what you have listened to? I mean really know? I know sometimes that my car needs a quart of oil, just by the sound of the engine. I know that the dog next door has been stepped on by the horse -AGAIN. I know that the car that drives by needs the brakes fixed. Can you tell how the forest feels by the way it sounds? Can you tell the water in the creek is polluted by the song it sings? Sometimes you can, sometimes not. Do the little birds that are now starting to return sing a song that is sad and needs care? I have listened to people walking by in the mall and heard angry, happy and sad footsteps, tired, old and young footsteps. It is very funny to have your eyes closed and look up and see old steps on a young person, and vice versa. The sound tells a little story about that person, as do the sparkle in their eyes, the way they hold themselves, their dress, and even their choice of shoes. I have heard women with voices like nails on a chalkboard, silk, a small stream, hoarse, husky, hard, sad, righteous and pitiful, as well as hundreds of other things. Men have the same voices, but all different. How many people can you identify in three spoken words or less?
Labels:
Epistemology,
Indigenous Science,
Listening,
native knowing
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