Necessity is the Mother of Invention
Nied, Nauthiz, Need...the need fire.
This rune is shaped like a cross. The pillar is striaght up and down, like isa! So it tells us to Stop where we are and have a look.
The cross piece has been written at a slant, high on the left as you look at it, slanting down to the right. If it were placed on the Lakota Medicine Wheel, it would be North (the Creator and ideas) to South (the Warrior and protector of the central fire of the community, called the children's fire and the grandparents who sit on either side of it) and Northwest (tribal chief who is responsible for the whole tribe) to Southeast (tradition, why we do things the way we do them).
Why do I add this information from a different culture?
Because it relates to the same tribal concept that all cultures follow. We must take care of our children who are our future and our elders who are our past, and the fire which is our central tool of survival. To do this we will draw a circle around them and set up protection around them. It is a physical, social, and spiritual duty to do this.
As recently as my mother's generation, the hearth fire was essential to survival. If you let the woodstove die, so might you. She grew up on a farm in Wisconsin. In the 1950's they were starting to get more modern. Still, the fire taking care of the needs of all the people in the household and taking in the elderly and children (even those who may have been institutionalized for their health issues), was not only in place as a concept but a daily practice. The old rune Nied was secure in the system as the center of the culture and the center of the individual's drive to improve the conditions of the cultural system (which, as a true system, considered all the parts as integral).
What is significant about the idea of Need - the need fire - in today's society?
At a gig inMinneapolis this Saturday I witnessed a most disturbing thing. I am a story teller and musician, I have been working with children for over a decade. The children are usually engaged and participatory in my work and full of fire in their bellies. The need fire that makes them feel secure also feeds their desire to know, question, laugh.
There was no fire in the bellies of the children sitting before me this weekend. It was sad, eerie, and disturbing. There were no parents with them, they clung to the liters of soda pop they had been winning at the carnival games as though someone might steal this precious substance. They would not engage or look me in the eye. They would not accept the gift of free evergreen sprigs wrapped in ribbons from my son whose role was to hand them out. They would not take their hands away from these liter bottles of pop. They cradled the pop and it will be poured into their bellies - and may even be the only thing in their bellies. It will douse their fires more and more and more. They will grow up with no concept of the Need Fire and they will fill the jails our government has focussed funding to build more of.
Strange thing is, though, these children were not wholly limp and lifeless. They were full of a different kind of fire I can only describe as an "Entitlement Energy." When pushed to point at my piggy bank globe of where our state Minnesota is (a common and effective teaching tool filled with coins from around the world which I have been using for years) they not only could not point to our state but their aspects shifted to lip licking greed as they discovered there might be money in the globe. They quickly lost all fire when told that the globe contained money from other countries, unusable here in Minnesota...where ever that is.
In contrast, there were three children who had fire in their bellies. They want to see the money from other cultures because it's so interesting, so cool! All three were accompanied by caring adults, mothers, grandmothers. All three were well fed and nurtured in every Need Fire way!
There is a sickness I am finding all over the place, in men and women, children and the elderly. It's just that usually there is a "buffer" of regular citizens that keeps this "element" in check. Not so this weekend. It is a sickness that was once the downfall of a pampered people, like gout. A sickness that comes from a combination of spoiled entitlement and a lack of true needs being met. A lack of understanding about what our needs really are, how they are being met, and the gratitude that comes from this understanding are pervasive in the America of 2005.
How many of us feel gratitude every time we have hot, clean bathwater pumped right into our house?
I know I do. Not many others around the globe get this luxury.
What has created this?
1. We have stopped putting all effort into protecting and preserving children and the elderly.
2. We have not defined the hearth fire of our culture...is it oil, is it an industry? is it sustainable?
3. We have allowed television and subsequent media to define who we are, what we "need" and what our goals in life should be. Media has become the need fire for so many, it is addictive, passive, and ultimately oppressive.
Why don't people see this?
Even the least monied has all kinds of "stuff" to make it seem as though they have no needs except what they are told they need by television etc. Our motto is "more for me" and recently in the Fox adds for the Simpsons, "my life is oppressed and dysfunctional but I have The Simpsons to medicate this for me.
Our "entertainment" is cheap and mindless and we are a people whose Need Fire is being doused every day in every way. We are no longer the creators and sustainers of our lives, our culture, the tribe. The need fire is going out. It shows up in the bad nutrition of food, thought, and spirit. Refined sugar and nutra sweet have become our rotting, death dealing agents. Dumb, numb, ignorant, and wasted are so many of our tribe. This is accross all cultural, socio-economic, and racial lines.
So, what is the remedy for the Need Fire?
The rune teaches us to:
1. Make a list of needs and wants...define what is essential and we will get at the essence.
2. Look at our daily lives and see how much we have and be grateful.
3. Seek out the children and the elderly who live within walking distance of our homes and make sure their true needs are being met. Not just a "meals on wheels" kind of thing. Are they being respected, are they lonely, are they being educated, are they being ignored.
When we ignore anything it dies. The children, the elders, the fire, it all dies and so do we.
4. We are all driven to a false sense of "survival mode" by those who would control us and douse our needfires. Stop, like isa said. And start creating your own lives, dip into the fire of creation and get into your bellies. Find out that the true human needs are not being met! Let that feed the fire and be the mother of your inventions...You!
That is the essence of the Rune Nied. Wake up and get aware!
This rune is shaped like a cross. The pillar is striaght up and down, like isa! So it tells us to Stop where we are and have a look.
The cross piece has been written at a slant, high on the left as you look at it, slanting down to the right. If it were placed on the Lakota Medicine Wheel, it would be North (the Creator and ideas) to South (the Warrior and protector of the central fire of the community, called the children's fire and the grandparents who sit on either side of it) and Northwest (tribal chief who is responsible for the whole tribe) to Southeast (tradition, why we do things the way we do them).
Why do I add this information from a different culture?
Because it relates to the same tribal concept that all cultures follow. We must take care of our children who are our future and our elders who are our past, and the fire which is our central tool of survival. To do this we will draw a circle around them and set up protection around them. It is a physical, social, and spiritual duty to do this.
As recently as my mother's generation, the hearth fire was essential to survival. If you let the woodstove die, so might you. She grew up on a farm in Wisconsin. In the 1950's they were starting to get more modern. Still, the fire taking care of the needs of all the people in the household and taking in the elderly and children (even those who may have been institutionalized for their health issues), was not only in place as a concept but a daily practice. The old rune Nied was secure in the system as the center of the culture and the center of the individual's drive to improve the conditions of the cultural system (which, as a true system, considered all the parts as integral).
What is significant about the idea of Need - the need fire - in today's society?
At a gig inMinneapolis this Saturday I witnessed a most disturbing thing. I am a story teller and musician, I have been working with children for over a decade. The children are usually engaged and participatory in my work and full of fire in their bellies. The need fire that makes them feel secure also feeds their desire to know, question, laugh.
There was no fire in the bellies of the children sitting before me this weekend. It was sad, eerie, and disturbing. There were no parents with them, they clung to the liters of soda pop they had been winning at the carnival games as though someone might steal this precious substance. They would not engage or look me in the eye. They would not accept the gift of free evergreen sprigs wrapped in ribbons from my son whose role was to hand them out. They would not take their hands away from these liter bottles of pop. They cradled the pop and it will be poured into their bellies - and may even be the only thing in their bellies. It will douse their fires more and more and more. They will grow up with no concept of the Need Fire and they will fill the jails our government has focussed funding to build more of.
Strange thing is, though, these children were not wholly limp and lifeless. They were full of a different kind of fire I can only describe as an "Entitlement Energy." When pushed to point at my piggy bank globe of where our state Minnesota is (a common and effective teaching tool filled with coins from around the world which I have been using for years) they not only could not point to our state but their aspects shifted to lip licking greed as they discovered there might be money in the globe. They quickly lost all fire when told that the globe contained money from other countries, unusable here in Minnesota...where ever that is.
In contrast, there were three children who had fire in their bellies. They want to see the money from other cultures because it's so interesting, so cool! All three were accompanied by caring adults, mothers, grandmothers. All three were well fed and nurtured in every Need Fire way!
There is a sickness I am finding all over the place, in men and women, children and the elderly. It's just that usually there is a "buffer" of regular citizens that keeps this "element" in check. Not so this weekend. It is a sickness that was once the downfall of a pampered people, like gout. A sickness that comes from a combination of spoiled entitlement and a lack of true needs being met. A lack of understanding about what our needs really are, how they are being met, and the gratitude that comes from this understanding are pervasive in the America of 2005.
How many of us feel gratitude every time we have hot, clean bathwater pumped right into our house?
I know I do. Not many others around the globe get this luxury.
What has created this?
1. We have stopped putting all effort into protecting and preserving children and the elderly.
2. We have not defined the hearth fire of our culture...is it oil, is it an industry? is it sustainable?
3. We have allowed television and subsequent media to define who we are, what we "need" and what our goals in life should be. Media has become the need fire for so many, it is addictive, passive, and ultimately oppressive.
Why don't people see this?
Even the least monied has all kinds of "stuff" to make it seem as though they have no needs except what they are told they need by television etc. Our motto is "more for me" and recently in the Fox adds for the Simpsons, "my life is oppressed and dysfunctional but I have The Simpsons to medicate this for me.
Our "entertainment" is cheap and mindless and we are a people whose Need Fire is being doused every day in every way. We are no longer the creators and sustainers of our lives, our culture, the tribe. The need fire is going out. It shows up in the bad nutrition of food, thought, and spirit. Refined sugar and nutra sweet have become our rotting, death dealing agents. Dumb, numb, ignorant, and wasted are so many of our tribe. This is accross all cultural, socio-economic, and racial lines.
So, what is the remedy for the Need Fire?
The rune teaches us to:
1. Make a list of needs and wants...define what is essential and we will get at the essence.
2. Look at our daily lives and see how much we have and be grateful.
3. Seek out the children and the elderly who live within walking distance of our homes and make sure their true needs are being met. Not just a "meals on wheels" kind of thing. Are they being respected, are they lonely, are they being educated, are they being ignored.
When we ignore anything it dies. The children, the elders, the fire, it all dies and so do we.
4. We are all driven to a false sense of "survival mode" by those who would control us and douse our needfires. Stop, like isa said. And start creating your own lives, dip into the fire of creation and get into your bellies. Find out that the true human needs are not being met! Let that feed the fire and be the mother of your inventions...You!
That is the essence of the Rune Nied. Wake up and get aware!
posted by Kari Tauring Blog | 9:08 AM
1 Comments:
I hear you!
Thank you for putting this out there. I work with children/youth in the Twin Cities area, and I have seen what you have described as the doused fire or misdirected flame. It is very disheartening, to say the least. But for those of us who SEE, we have to call it what it is, and then begin to make whatever necessary changes we can, starting with our own lives, our own children, our own students first and foremost.
And it starts with first recognizing it, and calling it out, and for that I say thank you!!
Peace
Ayanna
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