- Nov 2, 2005
- 231
- 1
Peace,
As a younger man in the struggle, I often find that alot of my elders who are spiritually uncultivated demand high honors just because they have jettisoned the doctrine of Christianity.
While I've been as respectable to these persons as I could possibly be, I've often had the problem of older people trying to "check me" on minutae, even when I've been in compliance with the ways of our ancestors. For example, I've been asked by certain elders to confer upon them honors which they have not been afforded according to ancestral merits.
I also have people who reprimand me for critically analyzing certain historical personalities, just because they have a cozy spot for them in their heart. At these instances, I'm reminded of how "they were in the struggle before I was born" and so on. It's as if I'm not "allowed" to view history by the mandates of MY spirituality, so as to not upset some old school revolutionary.
In the midst of all this, I am *VERY* mindful of my honored elders, and of my ancestors, talking to them daily. I'm comforted by the example given by Malidoma Some in The Healing Wisdom of Africa, when he expressed his frustration with having to be initiated with pubescent boys, because he was not yet seen as an adult in his society.
Does anyone else here run into this problem?
Peace.
As a younger man in the struggle, I often find that alot of my elders who are spiritually uncultivated demand high honors just because they have jettisoned the doctrine of Christianity.
While I've been as respectable to these persons as I could possibly be, I've often had the problem of older people trying to "check me" on minutae, even when I've been in compliance with the ways of our ancestors. For example, I've been asked by certain elders to confer upon them honors which they have not been afforded according to ancestral merits.
I also have people who reprimand me for critically analyzing certain historical personalities, just because they have a cozy spot for them in their heart. At these instances, I'm reminded of how "they were in the struggle before I was born" and so on. It's as if I'm not "allowed" to view history by the mandates of MY spirituality, so as to not upset some old school revolutionary.
In the midst of all this, I am *VERY* mindful of my honored elders, and of my ancestors, talking to them daily. I'm comforted by the example given by Malidoma Some in The Healing Wisdom of Africa, when he expressed his frustration with having to be initiated with pubescent boys, because he was not yet seen as an adult in his society.
Does anyone else here run into this problem?
Peace.