I wake up laughing on rainy days like today—as pleasurable as it sometimes is to watch grown men and women land the big splash in unseen puddles while racing to their chilly awaiting cars…it’s our allergic reaction to the wet stuff falling from the sky that brightens up the darkened edges of a faceless cloud passing by.
It’s always been a fantasy to write a children’s book based on the importance of a single drop—like anything Disney it opens with several freshly delivered raindrop babies leaping and lunging, giggling while poking fun of, laughing and learning the secrets required to make their way through Mr. Johnson’s well groomed lawn, over to the nicely paved city street, a quick turn at the manmade sewer system and off they go into a nearby stream headed for the Atlantic.
Can you imagine being a raindrop for a day?
My luck I’d end up playing on the tarred roof of a super Wal-Mart with no way down except to jump through a long metal spout, shooting quickly across an overcrowded path of walkers, talkers and drivers whose car stereos have more Hip Hop boom, boom, boom then the clouds that delivered us.
Sadly, not everybody is happy when it rains because sometimes it pours creating floods which rip trees from their roots and foundations connected to homes bend while swerving between water currents they don’t see coming.
While television weathermen point out daily how low we are on levels of being normal…rain never seems to earn a good break, it’s either too much, too little, too late, way too early or the reason why the company or family picnic was anything but a success. Rain is like a cuss word…when the Stock Market falls American earnings poured creating a bottomless pool of investors with no place to go.
Native American’s love the rain—so much so dances were created by way of recognizing its importance and or spiritually speaking to Grandfather Sun by way of asking, “Can we please grab a couple of cups?”
The Native American Rain Dance invites men and women to become a single unit of expression. Worn aren’t your everyday boots and suits, the clothing and large headdresses were unique and extremely special to those offering the invitation to the keeper of the gate. Large headdresses containing goat hair was proudly displayed while the rest of the body was draped with colorful designs and jewels such as turquoise. Rain dance apparel wasn’t disposable or worn just once…they were kept and displayed every year, to give thanks and or pray for more rain was an annual event, showing the creator our appreciation of an important single drop.
As for the dance, the ceremony featured men and women moving in zigzag patterns, rather than standing in a circle as was often seen in bad Western movies.
Feathers and turquoise individually play out major roles in the ceremony, they symbolize wind and rain. Although many elders are reluctant to tell the true tales of their particular band (a division of a nation) traditional Rain Dances are passed down through history featuring men with long wavy hair and women who wore theirs in a special tribal wrap at the sides of their head. Some faces were painted while others proudly showed off their personalized masks; a few were designed with a turquoise strip that stretches from ear to ear across the face. Near the bottom is a band of blue, yellow, and red rectangles. A fringe of horsehair is tied to the bottom protecting the throat with the power of three white feathers.
Native American women wore something similar except there’s no turquoise stripe, its replaced by a white line and their masks don’t feature rectangles on the bottom or the horsehair. Instead, it has goat hair around the top and an Eagles feather hangs over their face.
What would a great ceremony be without makeup?
Men painted their arms, legs, face and torso then blessed the art with tribal standard beads which were worn with fox skins and a silver bracelet with a white apron cloth. Native men didn’t go barefoot; they wore turquoise moccasins while women did nothing to protect their feet. Without the moccasins ladies were dressed in black dresses with absolutely no part of their bodies shown and then covered in a brightly colored shawl with one black and one white shawl over that.
Once completely dressed for a spiritual journey, each member of the nation lined up and performed the Native American rain dance in hopes of inviting rain to their day. Many children of Mother Earth in the southwest still perform this ritual to this day.
But! But! But! This shape of prayer was once banned by the United States Government.
The term “Rain Dance” came into being during the days of the Native American relocation, the government banned certain religious ceremonies (amongst them the Rain Dance and Ghost Dance? Nations in suppressed areas were forbidden to perform the Sun Dance. The Windigokan, a nominally cannibalistic sect, nicknamed "the backward people," became famous for telling federal representatives that the dance being performed was not the Sun Dance, but the Native American Rain Dance, thus preventing any prosecution or federal intervention.
I woke up laughing with the rain today…taking note of the roses with their leaves of green and petals lit like fire engines chasing wild flames on the face of a mountain in the sky—even the Elms, White Pines and Dogwoods didn’t seem to mind how cold each rain drop was to the nearest human touch. They didn't shiver, snore or call life a bore! They laughed right along with me.
While forty mile per hour winds scraped summer from the cluttered gutters and placed it parking lots, backyards with tall wooden fences and inside garbage cans tipped over by city employees who can’t seem to leave the vehicles that pay their rent, I found no reason to be anything but positive.
Getting back to living. Steal my art…
arroecollins@clearchannel.com
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