Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time a.k.a. Public Auction and the Navajos

How's everyone's weekend so far? Mine has been great. I had to wake up at 7AM this Sunday. Well, it's good for me, the lack of sleep sort of balanced the amount food I had consumed at last night's big banquet of potluck dinner.

Well, the reason I came to life that early was that we were going to "participate" in a live public auction in downtown Bryan. Most of the things auctioned come from the estate of Mr. T.K. Treadwell, which unfortunately, had very slight resemblance to those presented at PBS' Antique Road House. So we left while it was still what they call the "viewing time". No regrets, the upcoming auction on Aug 16 will be from the estate of Dr. Graham Horsely, a retired Architecture professor. We expect good things are coming from there.

I proceeded to sit in to what by far is the-longest-most-interesting-homily-at-a-9AM-mass. Topic of the morning was the life of Navajo Indian at a reservation in northeastern part of Arizona. It was far better than sitting at an anthropology class or visiting an exhibition at a museum. The works in progress are not intended to make a white case out of everybody, but to quote from Father Jerry, "not only they don't have any hope, but also they don't have anything to hope for". Sad, isn't it?

The 300,000 square miles reservation is home to roughly 260,000 Navajos. The area has very low income per capita, high unemployment rate, high alcoholism case, as well as a high domestic abuse level. The Navajos are earth people, as can be observed from their legend of creation, that the first man and woman came out of a hole from the inside of Mother Earth. They live and sleep in dirt floor house, that way, Mother Earth's protection is attained perpetually. Death to them is not a sad misery but rather a joyous occasion because one is coming back to the warm love of one's mother.

When the Navajos greet, instead of shaking hands, they touch each other's palm as quickly as possible as everyone is suspected to be the evil Skin Walker, a witch that can suck life out with only the firmest of a handshake. This matriachal society is also very private down to the level that intervention on other people's life is a taboo. This mannerism is not only exercised among the people of the tribes but also to the outside world. It's really hard to get close to them and to experience the culture, that to quote FJ again, "I learnt more from Tony Hillerman's novel about the Navajos than the 6 years I have been living there."

At the 6000 ft elevation, in harsh winter & summer, these people posses only the minimum of cloth to wear, food to eat, and water to drink. When they do ask for help, they only take what's really needed, not a bit more.

Life is hard up there. I don't know how it is compared to the slum area of Indonesia or any other place in the world for that matter. Care to share?