Editing Ourworld:Goliaths (section)

== A Meeting between young White Cloud and the Medicin Man and chief, Anatawa ==
Anatawa: So White Cloud, your mother said you wanted to speak to me about something?

White Cloud: yes elder, there is something that has been troubling me

Anatawa: and what is that?

WC: Well… it’s the nature of evil

A: hmmmmm, this is, indeed a subject of a troubling nature… but also a broad one. What aspect is it in particular that troubles one so young, and darkens your brow, and makes you seem more “Thunderhead” than “White Cloud” ?

WC: … its, its that the tools of evil seem so widely spread, elder. The many animals which are poisonous, whose bites and stings cause so much suffering, the anger that drives some beasts to maul and destroy, the lust that can fill men’s hearts and drive them to dishonorable acts, surely these are the tools of evil.

A:…you mention many examples of such tools White Cloud, but look at your waist, what is that attached to your belt?

WC: I think you tease me Elder, it is the tomahawk my father made for me and gifted me with last name day, and which you yourself blessed last spring.

A: I do not tease young one, merely try to bring your attention to so near at hand an example. Your fine hatchet, is it a tool for evil or for good?

WC: Umm, I would say for good elder, for I can use it to mercifully end the life of a brother elk if we are hunting him, and he is bleeding slowly, and to help provide food for my younger sisters. I can also use it to cut saplings to make shelter, or firewood to warm my family in winter.

A: These are many good things White Cloud, and from these things can we say that your tomahawk is a tool of good. But could your tomahawk not be used, as many often are by young boys whose blood runs hot, to cut down a tree just for the vacuous thrill of reaping destruction? Could it not be used to smash in your rivals skull, for some slight you feel he has given?

WC: that is true elder! I should throw it into a stream so it can never be used for such things!

A: You could do this White Cloud, but you had best have a good explanation ready tonight when your sister shivers beside an empty firepit that will not lite for want of kindling.

WC: true…

A: So what do you take from this White Cloud?

WC: That the tomahawk is both good and evil. And in being both, it is truly neither

A: your mind is fertile ground for the seeds of wisdom White Cloud, it pleases this old heart. Yes the tool is neither good nor evil, such things being judged on what the tool is used for. The rattler can use its venom to deter the eagle who would eat its eggs, a noble thing, while some scorpians take joy in stinging for stinging’s sake. Some bears become inflamed in rage and do great harm, but that same anger is what a she bear will use  to protect her young. Tools are never truly good nor evil, only are we men, and then only by what we intend and what we do.

WC: but what about other things, the bleasings of the spirits and the Ontoway Medicines?

A: so to with these things White Cloud. I could call upon the spirit of my friend Bisson, and he would give me great strength , would that be for good or bad? Bad if I used this medicine to take from you that fine wolf pelt jacket, good if I used this strength to lift a fallen tree from a man’s leg. The same is true for the medicines of other peoples, strange though they are, judge not the medicine, but the uses to which a man puts them, and should many observations allow, then judge the man. For a man who often does evil has  been tainted by the manatou and should be both pitied and avoided , lest that taint spread like the coughing fever. And now I think that you should go out and hunt young one, for I see that your brow has cleared, and the Sunshine of understanding is peeping through the clouds… and please thank your father for the brace of rabbits he left by my wigwam flap last week, the were well meant and thankfully received.