More on Mike

I am reposting these comments from Charlton Wilson Cht Ccht because they really cut to the chase.

Before projecting our own conditioning we should first and foremost look inwards at ourselves and to see what Mike's death reveals in us.

I am absolutely convinced (especially on reading his suicide note) that Mike was clear in his intent and his act did not come from depression and was not an act of cowardice or selfishness. From his perspective he was sacrificing himself for the sake of others.

---SMR

On Mike's spirituality and death

i am exhausted. i REALLY want to go to sleep. but i cannot with so many threads lingering incomplete.

i have read over and over from folks saying: he's a coward, how could he suicide or he WAS suicided or or or mere speculation.

a brief history of me and Mike: we were re-acquainted after a number of years last summer in Hot Springs South Dakota at the Sun Dance ceremony. many of you do not kno...w what that ceremony entails - yet it is essential to this whole story. Mike was not a sun dancer. in fact, let me step back a moment for some back story.

the sun dance is one of the 7 sacred rites of the Lakota (Sioux) nation. It was outlawed and illegal till merely a few years ago, but practiced in secret, at cost of death, to the Lakota (and the other tribes that performed this sacred rite) the words are actually wiwang wacipi (wee-wahng wah-chee-pee which in Lakota means "the staring at the sun" dance. for 4 days and nights the dancers fast. no food no water. and the dancers (traditionally only men in the olden days) were pierced in the chest and tied to the sacred tree and danced this way. at the end of the allotted time - defined by "spirit", the men would "break" their tethers (pull from the tree and tear their flesh) and their prayer would be complete. the prayer of this ceremony is: "oyate yani pikta ca" so that the people may live. i don't know if you can grasp the depth of this. see, in Native ways, we don't have money or animals or whatever to give. we have our flesh and our blood. this is give away. and this is HARD. 4 days no food, no water and piercing our flesh and breaking.

so, the xtians came and called it SAVAGE. because they sat in their comfortable buildings and read their book and that was easy. SOFT. no blood. no flesh. in fact, the xtian bible gives dominion of the entire planet to man. in Native ways - we are all related (mitakuye oyasin) so we do not take advantage of pillage our resources. we are EXTREMELY careful traditionally with our resources. am i getting through to some of you? is anything i am saying clarifying things here?

young sisters and brothers, i hear that you have trauma surrounding suicide. i hear that you feel like Mike, our personal friend, was like a father figure. i hear you that you do not agree with suicide. i hear you that you feel like it is a cowards way out. i hear you that you are hurt. maybe you don't even know that you are hurt. seems like it though.

here's the thing, and i do not want to invalidate you, you are projecting. i am not trying to patronize by saying this to you: do you know what projection is? someone you know killed themselves and left wreckage. you are taking these traumatic events and overlaying them onto this situation. like Mike said so many many times: YOU ARE LOOKING IN THE WRONG DIRECTION. can you hear this? i am not trying to be unkind or mean. (sometimes people hear my direct words/wording that way) so, please, try to hear me and bear with me.

ok, fact: YES, Mike took his own life and he did it with a gun. but you are looking in the wrong direction. if you followed this man, then you must be open to paradigm shift. imagine that him giving his life was a gift. in the Native tradition of "give - away" or "flesh offering" i KNOW this is hard for westerners to grasp. we are indoctrinated to xtianity, sin, these social morés of xtianity. gotta let go. theism, while i've never heard Mike say it, (i will, loudly) theism is a big part of the destruction of this planet. let go of the puritanical belief system. (now, know that this is not a typical give away. Natives don't generally condone suicide, traditionally. and i do not condone suicide...

nevertheless: GIVE AWAY or FLESH OFFERING.

Mike had found his way to Native - specifically Lakota - ways. (mostly).

his final words that we have speak over and over of "...for the children..." there is nothing more Native than being concerned with how we are leaving things for the 7 generations to come. (not japanese. but you can make some comparison there if you like. yes honor, yes taking one's own life. (hari kari) yes, foreign to westerners.)

Mike took his own life. Mike was NOT nuts or crazy or massively depressed.

he was carrying a load for 7.2 billion and people like you (and you said so yourself earlier in this thread) expected him to just carry it. actually, i did too-with out realizing it. and i expected him to be here a good long time yet. i WAS going to see him this summer. well, now the pack leader is not here. IN FACT: he has directly said: PUT THE WOMEN IN CHARGE. PUT THE WOMEN IN CHARGE. we need to listen. we need to stop looking in the wrong direction.

these are MORE Native tenets. pre-christian.

so, bro, please, shake off the funk/mist. you are looking in the wrong direction. GIVE AWAY/FLESH OFFERING. (yah, his entire body as the offering) to help us. for Unci Maka (lakota - oon-chi mah-kah = grandmother earth), for the children... and perhaps, as a result, so we save our own arses too.

please.

hecetu yelo (it is finished)

mitakuye oyasin (we are all related)

tasuunka kangi sapa miye yelo

one last thing - if you (or anyone) should need to speak further, to process ( i happen to be a therapist that follows traditional Lakota ways, that's how Mike and i reconnected) contact me on FB. we can talk on the phone. we can skype. we can write to each other through email.

part of my paradigm shift is to help folks like you (and all of us) to let go of how he gave this final message and concentrate on the message, part is to address the epidemic of western mental sickness, a massive malady, part is to empower all of us to stick to Mike's burden that he carried and more. i take this upon my shoulders because i loved this man. i am "poor" financially. but i am asking nothing in return - unless someone can send help. (i have bills too). we WILL get though this time. we WILL thrive and we will save Unci Maka AND our arses. we WILL look in the right direction.

so, what do you say: you with me?