so true keb

Senofou, btw I was thinking of you being most in tune with a very special African word.


Ubuntu - the root of the word is a Zulu word. It's often described as - I am because of you or we can't be deeply human in a vacuum. And I've extended that to say that it is not only through people but through our interactions with all sentient beings on the planet that we feel our humanness.

When you live in a village, naturally, you live close to nature. And the natural world around affects the way you are. It creates extended family. It creates shared community. And it creates a sense of belonging to something. And I think that a lot of the anxiety disorders and depression that we see in the world are actually an undiagnosed homesickness for a sense of belonging.

And that sense of belonging means to each other - to what it means to be human, what it means to be a part of the natural world. And the goal is to be so present that that humanity - whatever we are met by in other people - a compassion to be with that arises. And that brings us to a deeper part of ourselves.

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RAZ: Boyd tells a story in his TED Talk that gets at this idea. And it's about a female baby elephant who passed through his family's game reserve named Elvis. And they called her Elvis because when she walked...

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VARTY: She walked like she was doing the Elvis the Pelvis dance. She was born with very badly deformed back legs and pelvis. When I first saw her, I thought she would be dead in a matter of days. And yet, for the next five years, she returned in the winter months.

And we would be so excited to be out in The Bush and to come across this unusual trek. And we would drop whatever we were doing, and we would follow. And then we would come around the corner. And there she would be with her herd.

And then one day, we came across them at this small waterhole. It was sort of a hollow in the ground. And I watched as the matriarch drank. And then she turned in that beautiful slow motion of elephants. And she began to make her way up the steep bank. The rest of the herd turned - shoo - and began to follow.

And I watched young Elvis begin to psych herself up for the hill. She had a full go at it. And halfway up, her legs gave way and she fell backwards. She attempted it a second time. And again, halfway up, she fell backwards. And on the third attempt, an amazing thing happened. Halfway up the bank, a young teenage elephant came in behind her. And he propped his trunk underneath her, and he began to shovel her up the bank.

And it occurred to me that the rest of the herd was, in fact, looking after this young elephant. The next day, I watched again as the matriarch broke a branch. And she would put it in her mouth. And then she would break a second one and drop it on the ground. And a consensus developed between all of us who were guiding people in that area that that herd was, in fact, moving slower to accommodate that elephant.

What, all of the sudden, the herd taught me caused me to expand my definition of Ubuntu. And I believe that in the cathedral of the wild, we get to see the most beautiful parts of ourselves reflected back at us. And it is not only through other people that we get to experience our humanity but through all the creatures that live on this planet.

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RAZ: Wow. It's such a beautiful story. I mean, just thinking about how the herd was - you know, was looking out for this elephant. I mean, it just makes you think that, you know - it's like this idea is intertwined in everything around us.

VARTY: Yeah. And it doesn't always show up in, you know, ways that we would consider harmonious. You know, sometimes the Ubuntu in nature is the swiftness in which an injured animal is taken out of suffering by another animal. But there's an elegance to nature. And there is a way that everything is holding everything else.

You know, my definition of harmony is - everything is uniquely itself. And by being uniquely itself - a part of a greater unfolding. And that is what all the ancient cultures knew - you know, this intricate connection. And when you live in a relationship with that, you start to know yourself as a part of.

Within that is a kind of oneness and a felt oneness between all things.


Its partly why we are on Mudcat.


https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=481294968