Chapter
I
Sometime
in the mid 1980’s, I met a Native American who originated from a
tribe in northern Mexico. I don’t remember the name of the tribe or
his name, but I remember him quite well. My friend was illiterate.
Not functionally illiterate, but totally illiterate. He could not
read or write anything. He could not read a clock to tell the time of
day. He could not work the simplest mathematical problem but he could
speak five languages: Spanish, English and three Native American. He
was not stupid. He was just uneducated. While we were together he
told me about a lady friend he had loved. Love is my word not his. He
called her his lady. When he talked of her there was great sorrow in
his voice. He told me the year she died and asked me how long she had
been dead. It had been just a few years since she died. He knew his
birth date, but did know how old he was.
He
lived on the streets getting by however he could. Coming and going,
sleeping and rising when he wanted. Here was a man who had no concept
of time except possibly the rising and setting of the sun, the phases
of the moon and the changing seasons.
After
we parted, I happened across him one day while he was scavenging.
That was the last time I saw him.
I
thought about this man a lot. One thing I thought about was how he
saw the world; what was his reality like? If he had money and tried
to spend it, he would have to trust that the change he received was
correct. Did he go through each day knowing how much “time” he
had until dark by the position of the sun in the sky? What about how
he could tell when to get some warmer clothes. We know by the time of
the year, but he could not read a calendar. He could see the changing
seasons but he could not tell the years as they went by. He could not
count: 1,2,3,4,5. Did he have linear time as part of the reality that
he lived, or was it the concept of cyclic time that I had read about.
Maybe he had no concept of time at all.
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