Posted: Thursday, August 20, 2009 12:00 am
When Shoshone Indian Willie LeClair gives presentations around the country, he always starts the same way.
He draws a circle.
He writes the word "RESPECT" at the top.
He looks at his audience.
"Respect is probably the most important word in any language," he says. "Regardless of where you come from, whatever your culture, whatever your background may be, to be able to live in today's world, you have to have a lot of respect for everything around you."
People must respect Mother Earth and the elements - like water, earth, fire and sky - because they sustain life, LeClair says.
And people must respect each other. But in order to do that, they must respect themselves first.
"You can't give away something you don't own," LeClair says.
He draws another section in his circle and labels it self-respect.
"We only own three things - our mind, our body and our spirit. We must have self-respect for them before we can give those away to anybody."
The bottom of the circle is self-image. We can put up a false image, he says, but we can't fool ourselves with that image.
"To finish the circle off, we must be completely self-satisfied with what we do," LeClair says. "And that makes up the total Circle of Life."