You know, I have lived a long life, and in that lifespan, I have seen many things. From an old log home in my youth to travels down this long path of life, technology has changed the world.
Growing up in Dargan, my Grandmother Gen never had a telephone until I left for the Army on Sept. 5, 1966. It was a three-party line.
Fast forward to 2025, and everyone is carrying a telephone, computer, camera, map and this tiny contraption in your pocket, jeans or purse. It answers any question you might want to ask it. You can even send mail and messages on it.
No ‘Artificial Intelligence’ was working in 1966 or we wouldn’t have gone to Vietnam to fight the little angry people over there in a war.
Our inventions are getting smarter every day.
Life totally surrounds this little gadget and even small kids are getting used to iPhones as their parents want to keep them busy, quiet in the car or at home in a corner.
Life, too, as we know it, has changed much during our stroll from the cradle.
But I like history and those views of people back in the day.
Not so long ago while reading ‘Lewis & Clark ~ Voyage of Discovery’ by Stephen Ambrose, I thought about the American Indian and his vision of life.
The book is a fascinating story of time back in the early 1800s when President Jefferson gave the two explorers this assignment, “The object of your mission is to explore the Missouri river to the Pacific Ocean.”
On May 21, 1804, Lewis and Clark set out to explore and see life as never before seen by the eyes of white Americans.
This is a story for another column, but when I think back to that era and the many Indian tribes encountered on this journey, I think of a primitive culture and another perspective.
Native Americans had a habit of associating life and its essence with nature.
I have a fond definition of life offered purportedly by the Crowfoot Indian tribe in this tiny verse:
‘What is Life?
It is the flash of a firefly
In the night.
It is the breath of the buffalo
in the wintertime
It is the little shadow which runs
across
the grass and loses itself
in the sunset.’
The American Indian had no such vision of the future like most of us have seen in our own lifetime, or an iPhone with such massive capabilities.
When I think about the Crowfoots definition of life back then, I admire their view of time by looking at nature.
As a kid and even today, I often watch the fireflies light up the woods on a dark, dark night as they fly to and fro searching for a mate; have you observed them?
Have you ever watched the on and off switch of a fireflies butt; it lights up like a tiny blinking Christmas bulb on a tree. It is mesmerizing to watch!
As a kid I always enjoyed the night time and their beautiful light show among the fields and trees.
Fireflies or lightning bugs as they are sometimes called symbolizes different things around the globe.
Some say that the Firefly light which flashes in darkness suggests ‘hope, illumination and guidance.’
Others say the emitted light is a ‘divine guidance’ and a ‘spiritual path.’
And many other cultures see the fireflies as a ‘symbol of ‘love and romance’, since the male of the species shares its ‘flashing light’ in an attempt to attract a female mate.
As I watched the dancing fireflies of summers, I’m thinking ‘love’ is the main essence of the fireflies ‘magical’ light dance. And for sure, ‘love actually does make the world go round.’
But a sad thing is happening. Fireflies are becoming more extinct. ‘Habitat loss, pesticides and light pollution are all major contributing factors to their disappearance.’
I’m wondering too, in review of world events, if love is having a diminishing decline with populations across the globe. Parents seem to be having fewer children in some countries around the world to include the US.
And as the Crowfoot sums up life’s journey, they leave us with one final thought:
Life ~ “It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset”.
The end?
Maybe or maybe not.
