Baashkaakodin-Giizis (Freezing Moon ) / Gashkadino-Giizis (Freezing Over Moon), November 1. 2023
Biindigen Gashkadino-Giizis, Welcome Freezing Over Moon!
It's the first day of the moon when the rivers and lakes freeze over, and soon the soil of the earth will be covered with snow and ice. There's a stillness that comes with it. Mother Earth has gone to rest. This is a comforting thought that I will hold on to amid the madness that we experience today. We need much of that today — stillness. There is too much noise in today's world.
The mass hysteria, the way technology/social media are misused nowadays for orchestrated smear campaigns aiming at character assassination (hunting down "pretendians" and "defendians," the blatant, unlimited howling with the wolves in the forest, the unspeakable cowardice of spreading derisive memes that kick someone when they're down) turns my stomach around. Instead of calling in, we have made it a sport to call people out. It feels so GREAT to vent my moral superiority online, I LOVE kicking people where it hurts the most, man, I feel so WOKE! I can't stop hitting the laughing emoji button when someone tries to defend her! Fuck Buffy Sainte Marie! She's a Pretendian! Burn her and all her Defendians at the stake!
Geez, what a mess we're in.
A friend of a friend sent me a message yesterday, asking if I have solutions, how to deal with this situation? I think I'm going to answer her, "I think there simply is no solution, the nasty genie of mass hysteria is out of the bottle and no one will be able to 1-2-3 put it back in. When the genie is out of the bottle, things cannot be easily restored to the way they were before. For me, it is important to keep the things that really matter to me front and center in my mind and tune everything else out. The mass hysteria, it is so widespread, the poison is so deep in Turtle Island soil that I can’t do much about it (except writing about it). I can, however, continue keeping a positive mind frame and not let the craziness get to me or get swayed too much by the issues of today. I refuse to allow the negativity to get under my skin. The soil I walk upon may be poisoned but I can still walk and talk with the earth, who is my mother, and because she is very old and wise will long outlive today's madness. I can also do a lot about the things that I am focused on. So I try to focus on them and let the craziness pass me by. Instead of worrying about what I cannot control, I must shift my energy to what I can create.
We have no choice, We must do it to stay sane, and to protect ourselves and the people and things that are important and sacred to us.
However! Having said this, I will never stop speaking out against negativity and cowardice as long as there's breath in me and I hope you will do the same."
Miigwech.
Illustration: "Old Man's Song" ©2023 Zhaawano Giizhik