New great-nephews and improvements in my 'learn to see shades of gray' abilities

My nephew and his wife have said hello to their twins this morning. I'm glad that everyone is alright, and I'm sad for my niece, in that she really didn't want to have a c-section. I hope that she has plenty of support and help while she heals. I pray that she doesn't have to go through postpartum depression and that she is able to really enjoy her three sons. I also hope that Thomas is able to make the transition to big brother smoothly.

Last night I watched a wonderful film, called 180(degree sign, can't figure out how to make it) South. It was a documentary of this man's trip to Patagonia to surf and climb a mountain that had only been climbed once before. I loved everything about it. The music was wonderful, the scenery was so beautiful, and the narrative was really interesting. I walked away remembering why the environmental ethos attracted me. One more good solid brick in my attempts to stop being so black and white.

I also watched a really neat documentary called Miss Navajo. It was about a girl competing for this title, and ended up being about all the girls competing for this influential post. They had to speak Navajo, be able to butcher and prepare a sheep and homemade tortillas. There was a lot of historical commentary from women who had been Miss Navajo. I really wanted the central girl to win, but she came in as first runner-up. However, her father said that she and her sister are taking their Navajo language acquisition more seriously and are becoming fluent in Navajo, so he feels that this has been a good experience for the family. I hope that she competes again and wins. I really liked her. She used the word simile correctly in answering a question about Changing Woman. I was so impressed by her humility and her intelligence. I think that she would make a great Miss Navajo.

One woman talked about how her grandmother tried to keep her daughter from attending the BIA school, because the grandmother was worried that the girl would lose her language and her culture. This is something that I always felt was silly, but watching the woman cry as she spoke about being separated from her family and being forced to scrub the floor with a toothbrush for speaking Navajo, I realized that there is nothing silly about it. I'm sure the people running this program thought that by immersing the students in the English language and forcing them to become fluent, they were doing the best thing for the students, but they weren't.  They were destroying the children's link with their past and their culture. Again, a brick in the shades of gray wall for me.