BRUCE LANSDALE HONORARY DOCTORATE
PART 7
THE POWER OF MYTH IN RURAL DEVELOPMENT
BY
Bruce M. Lansdale
ATTITUDES TOWARD THE NATION
The other myth which has been changing rapidly in my years in Greece relates to the attitude of the rural population to their country, to being Greek, to being a Greek Orthodox. Nicos Dimos helped me understand the enormous burden of his Greek heritage in being an offspring of Odysseus, Pericles, Thucydides and Aristotle in his book entitled The Misfortune of being a Hellene.
But from a pride in being Greek, a deep faith and love for country and its people, and closely related to that, the Greek Orthodox Church, it has become fashionable to question and doubt the country, its leadership regardless of political association, and fellow citizens “all of whom are here to grab whatever they can.” Why be a Hellene with all this demands in character, in behaviour, in high mindedness and sophrosene (self control), when you can be a Romios 11 and do your kefi (live it up) dance with a carnation in your ear and live with the principle simera echi, avrio then echi (today we have, tomorrow we won’t). It is a source of enormous concern to discover how prevalent this attitude is among students in the lyceum and at the higher education level.
At the Farm School, some of these attitudes have been overcome by giving special attention to national holidays, special recreation programs, visiting speakers, spiritual and religious celebrations as well as participation in Greek Orthodox services in the Church. These activities have played a major role in developing among the students (not always while they are still in school) a love for their country, their fellow Greeks (with all their shortcomings) and their Church.
Two particular expressions of this effort are expressed in the School’s candlelight Service of Rural Leadership (which is unfortunately too long to describe here) and the Farm Youth Creed.
FARM YOUTH CREED
I believe in the beautiful outdoors and in the life of the village dweller, in his dreams, his ambitions and his faith, his ability and determination to improve his life and to seek happiness for those whom he loves.
I believe in the farmer who is the sound defense of his country, the source of her prosperity, the harbor of her security from both internal and external danger.
I believe in the sacredness of the rural home, the holiness of the love of the housewife and the fact that the rural home develops the solid foundation for the creation of a cultured, happy and healthy life.
I believe in the farm boy and girl, in their powerful determination to use every opportunity to cultivate their spirit, to develop strong bodies, to create pure spirits and dedicate their services whenever their country calls.
I believe in the goals and ambitions of the Rural Youth Clubs, the agricultural schools and the experimental institutions which prepare the young people for a better rural life.
I believe in the Greek Orthodox Church which teaches us love from the bottom of our hearts for an honorable life.
I believe in my country, undying Greece, and I am proud to be a farm youth.
I would not expect all of the students to believe all that is included in this creed. But we are not speaking of an oath, but a myth which need only be 50% acceptable to more than 50% of the people. This creed, better than anything I might say expresses what I would hope we could instill in the farm youth not only of Greece, but of the whole world.
MYTHS WHICH AFFECT OUR PLANET
The final area of impact of myth, going beyond the individual, the family, the community and the country is in the planet in which we live. What happens in any one country as concerns the dreams and aspirations of the people is bound to have an impact on the rest of the world regardless of the form of government, the economy of the nation, or the attitude of the people toward neighboring countries. But the attitudes of the people of a nation concerning environment have a very immediate impact not only on neighboring countries but on the world as a whole. Environmental pollution in Greece will affect the environment elsewhere just as much as environmental pollution in the United States many thousands of miles away has an impact on the environment of Greece.
The day that my predecessor, after thirty seven years at the School turned it over to me, I was twenty nine years old, and eager for his advice. “I’ll give you one last suggestion,” he said. “When you have a new idea, something new you want to try, don’t go to the professors and ministers, go to the villages. In every village you’ll find a few who may be illiterate, but they have within them, the wisdom of the ages.
One of those wise ones was the Sarakatsanos tselingas (clan chief), Barba Panos, who still wore pompom shoes, baggy pants, and the Sarakatsaniko cap. He couldn’t even write his own name, but he told me that the true gold in life is made of children, and that’s worth a lot of letters. He took me to see their flocks where in one sheepfold there were 400 ewes and nearby another with 400 lambs which they were separating for the butcher. When I asked him how he knew which lamb belonged to which mother he replied, “Don’t you know which students come from which parents?” and he began to show me which lamb belonged to which ewe, one by one, even though they were in separate sheepfolds.
Barba Panos died twenty years ago, but I wondered lately what he would say about the European Community and 1992, that we would turn over a portion of our independence to the West Europeans. Maybe he would have thought in the same way that another Chieftain, Chief Seattle in America did in 1852, 150 years before when he learned that the President of the United States was anxious to buy the territory which belonged to the Indians. After I had read Chief Seattle’s letter in The Power of Myth this past summer, I had a dream in which Chief Seattle was having a discussion with Barba Panos. A little later in the dream I was alone with Barba Panos on a hilltop. He expressed Chief Seattle’s thoughts in Greek, about the rural Greece that was part of his life and its relation to the European Community. Barba Panos’ thoughts, expressed in my dream, have had a lasting impact on me.
BARBA PANOS
“The Prime Ministers of the Common Market in Brussels
Say that they wish to integrate our land
With the rest of Europe.
We want them, we need them, but how can you bargain about the sky? The land?
The idea is strange to us shepherds.
If we do not own the freshness of the air,
The sparkle of the Aegean waters,
How can we bargain about them?
Every part of this earth
And the sea which surrounds it
Are sacred to our people.
The silvery blue leaves of the olive trees,
The sandy shores,
Every meadow, every pasture which feeds our sheep,
The sound of the cicadas rubbing their wings
The waves that burst with the Bati
Or lap the shore with the calm Bounatsa,
All are holy in the memory and experience of our people.
We are part of the earth
And it is part of us.
The perfumed lavender, the blooming thyme are our sisters.
The deer, the mountain goat, the hares,
They are our brothers.
Hidden in the valleys, on mountain slopes,
Are undulating meadows which feed our sheep,
The ancient Turkish kalderimia
Winding over tortuous hillsides
Which gave sound footing to overburdened mules.
The gurgling water that moves in the streams and rivers
Is not just water,
But the blood of our ancestors.
If we integrate our land with theirs
They must remember that it is sacred.
Each silent reflection in the clear waters of each bay,
Every mountain lake
Tell of events and memories in the life of our people.
The water’s murmur is the voice of our father’s father.
The rivers are our brothers.
They quench our thirst.
The small bays and harbors
Provide shelters for fishermen, sailors.
So they must give to the rivers and our bays the kindness
They would give any brother.
If we integrate our land with theirs
Remember that the air is precious to us,
This air shares its spirit with all the life it supports.
They speak of pollution which has become our problem too,
But we ask, will they make it better,
Or pollute our land further?
If we give them our land
They must keep it separate, holy,
A place where man can go
To smell the air enriched by the flowers in the pastures.
Will they teach their children what we tried to teach ours:
That the earth is our mother?
And whatever happens to the earth
Happens to our own children?
The people of the cities in Greece have forgotten this.
The air also gives our children the spirit of life –
At least those fortunate enough
To have grown up in our villages.
The wind that gave our grandfather his first breath
Also received his last sigh.
This we know: the earth does not belong to man,
Man belongs to the earth.
All things are connected like the blood
That unites us.
Man did not weave the web of life,
He is merely a strand in it.
Whatever he does to the web,
He does to himself.
Our ancient ancestors understood this
Even better than we do today
As Chief Seattle did
When he first wrote these thoughts
150 years ago.
One thing we know:
Their God is also our God,
The earth is precious to Him
And to harm the earth
Is to heap contempt on its Creator.
What will happen when the last flocks are slaughtered,
The sea overfished, the wilderness tamed?
What will happen when the edges of the forest
Each island cove, each bay,
Are heavy with the presence of multitudes of tourists?
Where will the wild oak bush be? Gone!
Where will the eagle be? Gone!
Who will say goodbye to the mountain flocks?
The end of living and the beginning of survival
The final remnants of prosperity.
We love this earth as a newborn loves its mother’s heartbeat.
So, if we integrate our land with theirs
They must love it as we have loved it
Care for it as we have cared for it.
Hold in their mind the memory of the land
As it was when I was a little boy,
Tending flocks on the mountain side.
NOTES
- Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers, The Power of Myth (New York: Doubleday, 1988).
- Frank J. Frost, Greek Society (Lexington: D.C. Heath and Company, 1971), p.88
- Frost, p.88
- Frost, p.89
- Frost, p.90
- Adam Smith, Powers of the Mind (New York: Random House, 1975).
- Aristotle on Education: Extracts from the Ethics and Politics
- Frost, p.45
- Harold B. Allen, Come Over Into Macedonia (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1943).
10. Nicos Demos, I Dystichia tou na eisai Ellynas (Athens: Ikaros, 1975).
11. Patrick Leigh Fermour, Roumeli: Travels in Northern Greece (New York: Harper & Row, 1960)
12. Campbel and Moyers, n. pag.
BRUCE LANSDALE HONORARY DOCTORATE
PART 7
THE POWER OF MYTH IN RURAL DEVELOPMENT
BY
Bruce M. Lansdale
ATTITUDES TOWARD THE NATION
The other myth which has been changing rapidly in my years in Greece relates to the attitude of the rural population to their country, to being Greek, to being a Greek Orthodox. Nicos Dimos helped me understand the enormous burden of his Greek heritage in being an offspring of Odysseus, Pericles, Thucydides and Aristotle in his book entitled The Misfortune of being a Hellene.
But from a pride in being Greek, a deep faith and love for country and its people, and closely related to that, the Greek Orthodox Church, it has become fashionable to question and doubt the country, its leadership regardless of political association, and fellow citizens “all of whom are here to grab whatever they can.” Why be a Hellene with all this demands in character, in behaviour, in high mindedness and sophrosene (self control), when you can be a Romios 11 and do your kefi (live it up) dance with a carnation in your ear and live with the principle simera echi, avrio then echi (today we have, tomorrow we won’t). It is a source of enormous concern to discover how prevalent this attitude is among students in the lyceum and at the higher education level.
At the Farm School, some of these attitudes have been overcome by giving special attention to national holidays, special recreation programs, visiting speakers, spiritual and religious celebrations as well as participation in Greek Orthodox services in the Church. These activities have played a major role in developing among the students (not always while they are still in school) a love for their country, their fellow Greeks (with all their shortcomings) and their Church.
Two particular expressions of this effort are expressed in the School’s candlelight Service of Rural Leadership (which is unfortunately too long to describe here) and the Farm Youth Creed.
FARM YOUTH CREED
I believe in the beautiful outdoors and in the life of the village dweller, in his dreams, his ambitions and his faith, his ability and determination to improve his life and to seek happiness for those whom he loves.
I believe in the farmer who is the sound defense of his country, the source of her prosperity, the harbor of her security from both internal and external danger.
I believe in the sacredness of the rural home, the holiness of the love of the housewife and the fact that the rural home develops the solid foundation for the creation of a cultured, happy and healthy life.
I believe in the farm boy and girl, in their powerful determination to use every opportunity to cultivate their spirit, to develop strong bodies, to create pure spirits and dedicate their services whenever their country calls.
I believe in the goals and ambitions of the Rural Youth Clubs, the agricultural schools and the experimental institutions which prepare the young people for a better rural life.
I believe in the Greek Orthodox Church which teaches us love from the bottom of our hearts for an honorable life.
I believe in my country, undying Greece, and I am proud to be a farm youth.
I would not expect all of the students to believe all that is included in this creed. But we are not speaking of an oath, but a myth which need only be 50% acceptable to more than 50% of the people. This creed, better than anything I might say expresses what I would hope we could instill in the farm youth not only of Greece, but of the whole world.
MYTHS WHICH AFFECT OUR PLANET
The final area of impact of myth, going beyond the individual, the family, the community and the country is in the planet in which we live. What happens in any one country as concerns the dreams and aspirations of the people is bound to have an impact on the rest of the world regardless of the form of government, the economy of the nation, or the attitude of the people toward neighboring countries. But the attitudes of the people of a nation concerning environment have a very immediate impact not only on neighboring countries but on the world as a whole. Environmental pollution in Greece will affect the environment elsewhere just as much as environmental pollution in the United States many thousands of miles away has an impact on the environment of Greece.
The day that my predecessor, after thirty seven years at the School turned it over to me, I was twenty nine years old, and eager for his advice. “I’ll give you one last suggestion,” he said. “When you have a new idea, something new you want to try, don’t go to the professors and ministers, go to the villages. In every village you’ll find a few who may be illiterate, but they have within them, the wisdom of the ages.
One of those wise ones was the Sarakatsanos tselingas (clan chief), Barba Panos, who still wore pompom shoes, baggy pants, and the Sarakatsaniko cap. He couldn’t even write his own name, but he told me that the true gold in life is made of children, and that’s worth a lot of letters. He took me to see their flocks where in one sheepfold there were 400 ewes and nearby another with 400 lambs which they were separating for the butcher. When I asked him how he knew which lamb belonged to which mother he replied, “Don’t you know which students come from which parents?” and he began to show me which lamb belonged to which ewe, one by one, even though they were in separate sheepfolds.
Barba Panos died twenty years ago, but I wondered lately what he would say about the European Community and 1992, that we would turn over a portion of our independence to the West Europeans. Maybe he would have thought in the same way that another Chieftain, Chief Seattle in America did in 1852, 150 years before when he learned that the President of the United States was anxious to buy the territory which belonged to the Indians. After I had read Chief Seattle’s letter in The Power of Myth this past summer, I had a dream in which Chief Seattle was having a discussion with Barba Panos. A little later in the dream I was alone with Barba Panos on a hilltop. He expressed Chief Seattle’s thoughts in Greek, about the rural Greece that was part of his life and its relation to the European Community. Barba Panos’ thoughts, expressed in my dream, have had a lasting impact on me.
BARBA PANOS
“The Prime Ministers of the Common Market in Brussels
Say that they wish to integrate our land
With the rest of Europe.
We want them, we need them, but how can you bargain about the sky? The land?
The idea is strange to us shepherds.
If we do not own the freshness of the air,
The sparkle of the Aegean waters,
How can we bargain about them?
Every part of this earth
And the sea which surrounds it
Are sacred to our people.
The silvery blue leaves of the olive trees,
The sandy shores,
Every meadow, every pasture which feeds our sheep,
The sound of the cicadas rubbing their wings
The waves that burst with the Bati
Or lap the shore with the calm Bounatsa,
All are holy in the memory and experience of our people.
We are part of the earth
And it is part of us.
The perfumed lavender, the blooming thyme are our sisters.
The deer, the mountain goat, the hares,
They are our brothers.
Hidden in the valleys, on mountain slopes,
Are undulating meadows which feed our sheep,
The ancient Turkish kalderimia
Winding over tortuous hillsides
Which gave sound footing to overburdened mules.
The gurgling water that moves in the streams and rivers
Is not just water,
But the blood of our ancestors.
If we integrate our land with theirs
They must remember that it is sacred.
Each silent reflection in the clear waters of each bay,
Every mountain lake
Tell of events and memories in the life of our people.
The water’s murmur is the voice of our father’s father.
The rivers are our brothers.
They quench our thirst.
The small bays and harbors
Provide shelters for fishermen, sailors.
So they must give to the rivers and our bays the kindness
They would give any brother.
If we integrate our land with theirs
Remember that the air is precious to us,
This air shares its spirit with all the life it supports.
They speak of pollution which has become our problem too,
But we ask, will they make it better,
Or pollute our land further?
If we give them our land
They must keep it separate, holy,
A place where man can go
To smell the air enriched by the flowers in the pastures.
Will they teach their children what we tried to teach ours:
That the earth is our mother?
And whatever happens to the earth
Happens to our own children?
The people of the cities in Greece have forgotten this.
The air also gives our children the spirit of life –
At least those fortunate enough
To have grown up in our villages.
The wind that gave our grandfather his first breath
Also received his last sigh.
This we know: the earth does not belong to man,
Man belongs to the earth.
All things are connected like the blood
That unites us.
Man did not weave the web of life,
He is merely a strand in it.
Whatever he does to the web,
He does to himself.
Our ancient ancestors understood this
Even better than we do today
As Chief Seattle did
When he first wrote these thoughts
150 years ago.
One thing we know:
Their God is also our God,
The earth is precious to Him
And to harm the earth
Is to heap contempt on its Creator.
What will happen when the last flocks are slaughtered,
The sea overfished, the wilderness tamed?
What will happen when the edges of the forest
Each island cove, each bay,
Are heavy with the presence of multitudes of tourists?
Where will the wild oak bush be? Gone!
Where will the eagle be? Gone!
Who will say goodbye to the mountain flocks?
The end of living and the beginning of survival
The final remnants of prosperity.
We love this earth as a newborn loves its mother’s heartbeat.
So, if we integrate our land with theirs
They must love it as we have loved it
Care for it as we have cared for it.
Hold in their mind the memory of the land
As it was when I was a little boy,
Tending flocks on the mountain side.
NOTES
- Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers, The Power of Myth (New York: Doubleday, 1988).
- Frank J. Frost, Greek Society (Lexington: D.C. Heath and Company, 1971), p.88
- Frost, p.88
- Frost, p.89
- Frost, p.90
- Adam Smith, Powers of the Mind (New York: Random House, 1975).
- Aristotle on Education: Extracts from the Ethics and Politics
- Frost, p.45
- Harold B. Allen, Come Over Into Macedonia (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1943).
10. Nicos Demos, I Dystichia tou na eisai Ellynas (Athens: Ikaros, 1975).
11. Patrick Leigh Fermour, Roumeli: Travels in Northern Greece (New York: Harper & Row, 1960)
12. Campbel and Moyers, n. pag.