WEBVTT

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"Talking With the Sun."

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This is actually a short essay.

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But it seems like even
if I put a short essay,

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everybody calls
everything I do a poem.

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[LAUGHTER]

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But I was thinking about
climate change, about changes.

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And if you think
about it, everything--

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we're always in a change.

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Everything changes.

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We change.

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Every day is different.

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Every moment is different.

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"I believe in the sun.

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In the tangle of human
failures of fear, greed,

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and forgetfulness,
the sun gives clarity.

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When explorers first
encountered my people,

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they called us heathens,
sun worshippers.

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They didn't understand
that the sun is a relative

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and illuminates our
path on this Earth.

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After dancing all
night in our circle,

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we realize that we
are a part of a larger

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sense of stars and planets
dancing with us overhead.

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When the sun rises at
the apex of the ceremony,

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we are renewed.

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There is no mistaking
this connection,

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though Walmart might
be just down the road.

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Humans are vulnerable
and rely on the kindness

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of Earth and sun.

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We exist together in a
sacred field of meaning.

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Our Earth is shifting.

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We can all see it.

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I hear from my Inuit
and Yupik relatives

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up north that
everything has changed.

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It's so hot.

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There's not enough winter.

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Animals are confused.

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Ice is melting.

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The quantum physicists
have it right.

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They are beginning to
think like Indians.

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Everything is
connected dynamically

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at an intimate level.

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When you remember this, then
the current wobble of the Earth

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makes sense.

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How much more oil can be
drained, without replacement,

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without reciprocity?

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I walked out of a hotel room
just off Times Square at dawn

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to find the sun.

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It was the fourth
morning since the birth

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of my fourth granddaughter.

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This was the morning I was
to present her to the sun,

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as a relative, as one of us.

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It was still dark, overcast as
I walk through Times Square.

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I stood beneath a
21st-century totem pole

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of symbols of
multinational corporations,

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made of flash and neon.

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The sun rose up over
the city, but I couldn't

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see it amidst the rain.

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Though I was not at home,
bundling up the baby

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to carry her outside, I
carried this newborn girl

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within the cradleboard
of my heart.

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I held her up and
presented her to the sun

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so she would be
recognized as a relative,

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so she won't forget this
connection, this promise,

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so that we all remember
the sacredness of life."

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