Life on This Earth

The following passage was written by Georges E. Sioui, Huron tribal leader and President of the Institute of Indigenous Government in Vancouver, Canada. He perfectly expresses my view of the human condition.

For human beings there is really only one way of looking at life on this earth, and that is from a sacred circle of relationships among all beings, whatever their form, and among all species. The great danger we face is that of reaching a point where we no longer see life as a vast system of kinship. Strictly speaking, there are no peoples, races, or civilizations: there is only the human species, one among many species of beings. Indeed, this species is particularly weak and dependent on other species and their constituent families--animal, vegetable, and mineral; material and immaterial. Furthermore, there is only one civilization appropriate to human existence: the civilization of the Circle, the Sacred Circle of Life. Human societies are of just two kinds: those that recognize and live in kinship witihn the Circle, and those that have forgotten the Circle.