Well we've got one graduation down and one to go when the 8th graders graduate next week. 8th grade graduation used to be quite a big event in Lame Deer before a public high school was built. It was the last time the kids would be in a Lame Deer school since they would have to be bussed to a nearby high school. Now that they have their own high school, the 8th grade graduation has been scaled back a bit, but I think it serves a useful purpose to mark the end of childhood and the beginning of "young" adulthood.
The high school ceremony had just started when the thunderstorm that had been building outside finally broke loose. We were in the gym, which was quite full, when all the lights went out. The emergency lights went on immediatly and we watched the seniors get their scholarships in the soft glow of what could have been candle light. The main lights came on again eventully and the rest of the ceremony went off just fine, except for the valedictorian's speech. The valedictorian was the shyest girl in the school. We were all waiting to see if she would be able to give her speech, actually we were wondering if she would be able to make it to the stage to recieve her diploma. She did get her diploma, but the crowd just overwhelmed her and they just skipped over her speech. Really, she is so shy that it was painful to watch her answer the roll call when attendance was taken. She was a library assistant 1st semester and it would have taken me another couple of months to reorganize the library without her.
The ceremony began and ended with a short prayer in Cheyenne, offered to the creator. I think I've mentioned it before, but it bears repeating. Cheyenne prayers are so quiet that only the Creator can hear them. They are not the loud prayers spoken so loudly that the person in last row can hear. As long as the Creator can hear them, what does it matter who else does? And they are offered in Cheyenne, a language that few Cheyenne speak anymore, but what does that matter if the Creator can speak Cheyenne?
4 comments:
As long as the Creator can hear them, what does it matter who else does?
Yes!!!!!! Heavens yes! What a wonderful, liberating concept! That reminds me of the prayer circles in Taiwan. We would share our needs and then all pray at once for which ever needs clicked in which ever language was on our hearts; English, Mandarin, Taiwanese, French.
Actually, I've been at ceremonies where the prayer giver can't be heard and pepople start talking and kids start running around and the prayer giver keeps praying as though it was just him and the Creator.
I figure the Creator is fluent in all languages. If The Creator can understand speaking in tongues, Cheyenne must be easy. Naturally, I have been pondering on God a lot lately. I still believe that we all worship the same God but with different names. Who am I to tell someone their relationship with God is wrong? :-) Love you, Annie.
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