So many great parts in this. 1) The sense and importance of community. Both the mention of them coming together when he returned where "the ghosts will be laid

So many great parts in this. 1) The sense and importance of community. Both the mention of them coming together when he returned where "the ghosts will be laid". And also the mention of "there was no “I” in his war, only “we”. We're stuck in such an individualist culture where we're told to work hard to stand out, and seem to be shamed if we're weak and in receiving help from others. 2) Words as metaphors. Beautiful examples given in the post, but we should remember the roots of many of our words are also metaphors. My favorite being "persona"[0], coming referring to an actors mask that air goes through. Helps remind me that we're always actors in the world, not some defined Self we're stuck with. Good book[1] on that topic from Jay Garfield. 3) Explanation at the end of his "Navajo Code-Talkers uniform". Mentions that yes, it's more than ok to imagine clothes as images and have meaning beyond "something to wear for efficiency". The Emerald podcast talks about these things, both ornaments in general from human history [2] and more specifically about guardians [3] which is what he considered the Navajo colors were for, to protect him. The similarity of all these cases, to me, comes to they're not all thoughts he had in his head as words, which is what we're told to do from the smallest of ages. We're told to think hard, and use words (like I'm doing here) to be smarter than others. When looked at, words and thoughts are nothing compared to the experienced feelings that come from community, imaginal metaphors like hopping rabbits that leave tracks in the snow, or looking at colors you're wearing and feeling protected. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persona https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persona [1] https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691220284/losing-ourselves https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691220284/lo... [2] https://www.themythicbody.com/podcast/universe-adorned-ornament-culture-cosmos-consciousness/ https://www.themythicbody.com/podcast/universe-adorned-ornam... [3] https://www.themythicbody.com/podcast/guardians-and-protectors/ https://www.themythicbody.com/podcast/guardians-and-protecto...