Dear HCN,
I was starting to get
bored reading another superficial diatribe – Stephen Lyons’ “Have a
Kokopelli Day” (HCN, 9/18/95) – against the new colonizers of the
West and indigenous imagery. I perked up, however, at the reference
to the picture in the Patagonia catalog of Norbu with his donkeys
“laden to the hilt, one assumes, with some rich American’s gear.”
It so happens that I took that photograph.
Among other things, I lead treks through Norbu’s village (in
Ladakh) and other Himalayan areas. It so happens that those
donkeys’ loads included donated clothing we were taking to Norbu’s
village. This was part of some half-ton of seconds, returns,
samples and whatnots that Patagonia has donated over the years to
needy Ladakhis through us. They do this without a whit of publicity
or a receipt for a tax break.
I haven’t spent a
winter in Pine Ridge, as Mr. Lyons recommends, but I have spent
winters in uninsulated homes in Ladakh and Nepal. I’ve tried my
darndest to learn the languages, and I count some natives of those
places as some of my best friends. After getting to know the
Ladakhis quite well and listening to their needs, my partner (an
American Buddhist monk) and I designed our treks to provide them
some work without disrupting their traditions, in the fall after
harvest season. We enlist various Ladakhis to interpret their lives
and culture to our trekkers, and many friendships have been
continued after the trips by mail. The Ladakhis enjoy the chance to
visit other parts of their own land, the chance to hear good and
bad about America, and the money they make. Moreover, with
additional money from these treks, and from direct sponsorships, we
give many Ladakhi children an education, monks and nuns support in
their Buddhist tradition, and we help a traditional medicine
foundation.
So I resent being lumped with what
indeed is kitsch. And I commend Patagonia for making duffels that
are durable and advertising them as such. Why is it so tempting for
Mr. Lyons to scorn whoever might be having a good time, so easy to
assume that whatever is new to him must be
superficial?
Of course we need to be wary
against the cheapening of indigenous images. This is a long, ugly
tradition in America, going back to long before Atlanta named their
baseball team. But this is only a symptom of illness in a world
where some people have disposable incomes while other people are
disposable. It is despicable, but simple complaining doesn’t offer
anything except shallow complaining. If you don’t like a catalog,
better to just recycle it and focus on what has
meaning.
Recreation is like any other human
endeavor: You can do it superficially, or you can do it with
meaning. Certainly it will not bring on a wonderful new age any
more than anything else will. But one of the positive traditions of
America is a curiosity for other places and other cultures. Genuine
journeys “out there,” to other lands and other peoples have added
greatly to our traditions; in fact, they underlie most all our
traditions.
In going out, we do need to
constantly ask: Do the places and peoples we visit change us or do
we consume what we seek? Clearly we often fail this test, but
occasionally we pass. Once in a while we are deeply moved, and with
grace we can even enhance the lives we touch on the
way.
Andy
Selters
Bishop, California
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline On Stephen Lyons’ knee-jerk reactions.
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