The hoop dancer dances within what encircles him, demonstrating how the people live in motion within the circling spirals of time and space. They are no more limited than water and sky. At green corn dance time, water and sky come together, in Indian time, to make rain.
Interpretation
The quote illustrates the interconnectedness of life, nature, and the cycles of time and space.
Paula Gunn Allen's quote emphasizes the idea that individuals are not confined by their circumstances, represented metaphorically through the hoop dancer's movements within a larger cosmic framework. It highlights the fluidity of existence, suggesting that life, like water, flows and adapts, and encourages embrace of the natural rhythms of time and space, culminating in harmony and growth, as seen in the symbolism of rain during the green corn dance.
In practice
In a speech about cultural diversity, one could use this quote to illustrate how various traditions reflect universal themes.
There are many female gods recognized and honored by the tribes and Nations. Femaleness was highly valued, both respected and feared, and all social institutions reflected this attitude. Even modern sayings, such as the Cheyenne statement that a people is not conquered until the hearts of the women are on the ground, express the Indians understanding that without the power of woman the people will not live, but with it, they will endure and prosper.
Things themselves cannot touch the soul, not in the least degree, nor have they admission to the soul nor can they turn or move the soul: it turns and moves itself alone and whatever judgment it may think proper to make, such it makes by remaking for itself the things that present themselves to it
I intend to leave after my death a large fund for the promotion of the peace idea, but I am skeptical as to its results.
On the basis of the eternal will of God we have to think of EVERY HUMAN BEING, even the oddest, most villainous or miserable, as one to whom Jesus Christ is Brother and God is Father; and we have to deal with him on this assumption. If the other person knows that already, then we have to strengthen him in the knowledge. If he does no know it yet or no longer knows it, our business is to transmit this knowledge to him.
Cursed be the verse, how well so e'er it flow, That tends to make one worthy man my foe.
I slide my arm from under the sleeper's head and it is numb, full of swarming pins, on the tip of each, waiting to be counted, the fallen angels sit.
I'm here as a product of process of evolution, which doesn't make very many exceptions. And which rates life relatively cheaply.
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