"...you don't have to know the meaning of life to know that life has a meaning."

I have thoroughly enjoyed the part of "Prison Writings" by Leonard Peltier that I have read. I have read about half of the book and find this man's story very sad but at the same time inspiring. I am excited to finish the book and hope to stay informed about the status of his imprisonment. This blog will touch on some of the things that I found most interesting in the reading. This includes Sun dancing along with the connections to birds and the Sky Father.
I was interested in learning more about sun dancing and so I looked it up on YouTube. This video that I found shows the piercing ceremony that Leonard Peltier writes about in his book.

The pain that Peltier discusses can be sensed in this clip. I decided to delve further into this topic because I didn't understand the piercing that Peltier talked about and I think that this video shows more of what Sun Dancing and the pain associated with that is.

The next topic that I found interesting was that of the imagery of the bird in relation to prison and the Sky Father. Within many oppressed cultures the image of the caged bird has been used to symbolize the desire but overall inability to attain freedom. Leonard talking about the bird that he saw on his window while he was in prison definitely fits into this symbol. I think that his poem on page 27 helps to understand this desire for freedom. The poem is as follows:
"in the shadowed night"
"Sometimes
in the shadowed night
I become spirit.
The walls, the bars, the gratings dissolve into light
and I unloose my soul
and fly through the inner darkness of my being.
I become transparent,
a bright shadow,
a bird of dreams singing from the tree of life."

This poem contains imagery of flying away to a place of freedom and the bird mentioned at the end definitely helps to reveal this image.
I think that it is interesting that birds are used as symbols of freedom. Maya Angelou wrote a poem about a caged bird and Alicia Keys wrote and sang a song about the same topic. This image of the bird pursuing freedom but being caged away and unable to attain that freedom is thus very important due to it's wide acknowledgment.