Because we, Edward and I, work with and within circles our relationship to the answer is different from the linear approach to children’s lives implied in the question. One way, circles or lines, is not better than the other. They are related. I understand that “Healing comes from the Circle. Life comes from the Circle of the Womb.”
Edward feels “…that too many of the boys and the men of our communities…were not loved, validated, protected or guided by their fathers”
Looking at the work done with these young people is revelatory. The work we did pitted us against ourselves, the contradictions of their young lives alongside the low expectations school and society held for them and the very things they believed about themselves. A new place within an old place was needed so all of us created sacred space in the classrooms. The boys needed new tools to facilitate growth and stimulate intelligent dialogue. We provided those things. The boys needed validation. We validated them in ceremony and deed. The boys needed to vent and play. The circle became a part of them and our sacred space gave itself away to play and questions and held a special place to unleash anger and rage.
The boy’s very presence sought to unravel the mysterious process of changing into a man within the intimacy of the circular teachings of the Great Medicine Wheels and the African centered approach to spirituality and urban living. We shared these things. The boys needed to feel our protection of their confidences, their space, their individuality, their angst, their words and their very lives. Naturally, they received this gift from us. The boys needed to feel the essence of men who understood the complexities of their living, the dichotomy of their energies, the very structure of their composition and the vagueness and clarity of their intents. They needed facilitators who enjoyed their simple need to play and touch worlds outside of their understanding. We made that happen in a variety of ways.
Time was a challenge and a hindrance. There is simply not enough time to properly give all they need. But there was enough time to share a lot and see changes in their perceptions, actions and thinking. We saw young bloods become articulate and poetic spokesmen within the protected space of our circles. We saw some remember their dreams. Others re-visited ancestors. A few were able to discuss their spiritual gifts and their home life without the attendant fears of being betrayed. Others found solace in the mere fact that someone could accurately read and validate them consistently. All enjoyed the power, the revelatory and freeing power of the drum. All were deeply affected by the stories, the music created by the groups and the sense that they own the circle they live in with Baba Ed and Baba Greg!!!
Were we effective? Yes. Did we touch lives? Yes, we did. Did any of the young men change? Yes, most did. Did we fail? Yes and no. We are only able to touch the body of the work and dance with it. Rites-of-passage needs to be longer and involve the community. The larger community does not embrace the significance, nor the importance of this work. Community contribution is key; and fundamental to the whole process. Without it a foundational leg is removed from the body of this work and boys often will find themselves in a world of hurt without a community supporting and understanding the necessity of the process beyond an intellectual nod of recognition.
Overall, we did a very good job. As Ed puts it, “We touched lives.”
☼ Gregory E. Woods, facilitator, Keeper of Stories (MAY 3, 2006)
“It is difficult to be a man. Where does a boy or a man learn to become a man? Being a man in a world seeking ways to diminish the power of that particular energy and understandably, trying to redefine it is hard without the guidance of a Man…There are two elements basic to becoming a man. These two elements live within every man: a female and a womb...” ~ Dawn Wolf
Great piece Greg!! Like the Undertaker in Godfather I, "I Love America;" however, it has purposely diminished the currency of manhood. It has offered a surrogate of sorts called cartoons, toys, sports, etc to help mask the recognition that puberty is not the transition from childhood into manhood, but it is the crossover from childhood to manhood. depending on what authority one listens too, a boy does not become a man until he is 18 or 21; however, nature gives him the tools of manhood during puberty. Would nature permit a child to have children? Absolutely not! Consequently, in our once great nation, manhood is delayed until at least 18 and in most cases...21. Although I do not drink beer and personally detest the smell, if the country will trust 18-20 year old men to defend this nation using some of the most sophisticated instruments of destruction ever devised, then why can't he whip out his military ID and have a drink. We trust him with democracy, but not a few drinks! This notion buys into the delusion that these young men are still children.
ReplyDeleteHow Absurd!
But, when I consider the men who sit in the pantheon of the gods, who direct the activity of civilization, I understand why the idea of manhood must be delayed. It for the same reason that slaves were not permitted to joint the ranks of infantry during the Civil War. If you offer a boy the right of passage at 11 years old, and strip him of his childhood instruments, there is a much better chance that this young man will learn responsibility and possibly develop an ambition that would threaten the men sitting at the control levers of our planet. But keep that same young man tethered to the notion of childhood until he has been fully indoctrinated through grade-school and then college, he will then be more willing to participate in his own destruction.
Am I the only one seeing the humor in this?! Many of us in the West spend 12-20 years in institutions of learning, but come out and work for someone who is destroying our health, our economy, or ecology, or morals, our families, our children, etc., etc., etc.
Oh, BTW, if you teach a slave the art of war, he will no longer remain a slave.