a friend made a comment about how as he handled the wooden bugsai, the paddle and nonchalantly without bad intentions remarked, ‘it’s just a paddle.’ I disagree. it is much more than that. Imagine being out in the wide ocean without a paddle (bugsai) alas with no breeze, no winds to carry you. like the life of pi without the tiger. Imagine that if one did not have handy reliable tools to complete a project; the bugsai is an extension of the trees that have given its tree life for humans to use for sealife.

(Musayaw sa Balud, photo above taken at Professor Janet Stickmon’s class at Napa Community College, photo (C) BSDBJ 2013)

sharing a facebook posting via tribal canoe journey:

What Good Is A Canoe Without A Paddle, Or A Paddle Without A Canoe

There is a young man paddling in his canoe. He has been paddling it daily,ever since he was just a little boy. In the distance he can see land that he has never explored before. It peeks his curiosity. Therefore he decides to leave his village & go explore.

Along the way on this new journey he loses a paddle. He thinks to himself, not good but I will be fine with just one paddle cause I am strong. As he keeps paddling it is more difficult to steer his canoe in the right direction and he begins to get tired. So after continuing to paddle like this for awhile he loses the other paddle.

“Well now, how am I supposed to do this” he thinks to himself. He makes up his mind that he really wants to see this place he’s never been before. So he tears off a piece of the bow of the canoe & uses it to paddle.

As time goes on he is becoming weaker as is his canoe. He gets weary & no longer has his destination in sight. He becomes blurred, out of focus, unbalanced and very weak. Even to the point where he falls overboard & begins to tread water. At that moment he still thinks “I can make it on my own”. But despite this he begins to drown. The boy goes underwater several times,each time getting weaker & weaker.

WHAT DO YOU THINK COULD POSSIBLY SAVE THIS YOUNG MAN AT THIS POINT?

No, it’s not a passerby vessel as he is in no-mans land.

He had left his home quite awhile ago to travel a great distance thinking he was on his way to the life he thought he wanted. He left behind his family,friends,and community to seek a different lifestyle.

Now he was on his own with no true support system, out in the vast sea, near death. As he came up for air he grasped unto the side of the canoe and by some miracle he had the strength to pull himself back into the canoe?

There in his very hand….appeared a paddle!
The young man was then able to safely make it back to his community.

THE MORAL OF THE STORY?
The young man was attempting to seek a different,”better”, way of life for himself. He made some bad choices & went the wrong direction. He mad foolish choices. One is made with Ego & Individualistic views. But in the end it was the strong sturdy canoe made by his community members that pulled him through.

And the special paddle.
In the end he discovered he can’t do it alone. without the strength & love that went into the making of that canoe and the paddle to help steer it back home and most of all, his willpower he would not have survived out in ocean all alone.

FAMILY is the tree that is what the canoe is made of

COMMUNITY is the canoe being shaped,taken care of,looked after

FRIENDS are the paddles that assist you along your journey

THE ‘SPECIAL’ PADDLE THAT APPEARED FROM NOWHERE?

could be ancestors helping guide him, making the ‘choice’ to live, or willpower…