After Yellowstone

I have a vague memory of a speaker i heard, many moons ago, who took the liberty of departing what would have been his gospel message to take a side path of his opinions about a move that was being viewed around America at that time. The movie that the speaker mentioned was called Dances With Wolves. I don’t remember much about the story therein, but I do remember that the speaker fellow was criticizing Kevin Costner’s implied message in that movie. As for the Dances With Wolves message, or plot line, or conclusion I don’t remember much about it, but I think I do recall that Kevin had some empathy with the naive Americans, and apparently that was his motive in making the movie. Past is prologue, as you will see when I explain more about this topic. Just a few minutes ago, we watched the concluding episode of Yellowstone. I’m not going to be a spoiler here by telling you how the series ended.

I will say that in one of the last episodes, the main character, a Montana rancher, was killed, and the last episodes revolved around what happened after his death. The surprise conclusion of the series—maybe I am a spoiler here but here goes nothing. Bottom line: his heirs returned the maga-ranch back over to the native Americans whom they had befriended in previous seasons of the series. Their decision to favor the sacredness of the land, rather than its monetary and developmental value was, it seems to me, a noble one. Reflecting on this plot conclusion, and that Kevin Costner had been, before he got killed off, the main character, and probably the producer of the series, I found myself pondering the meaning or message of “Yellowstone” in the big picture of life on this great north American continent that we call America. . . but perhaps more profoundly, life on this planet, and where our lifestyle on this planet may be leading us. It’s not likely that this continent would be returned, in toto, to the naives who were here when the Europeans began their centuries-long immigration and domination of the continent. But maybe, applying a different twist to my feelings about this would be to consider the possibilities that this planet would somehow be returned to a native appreciation and respect for this land. . . this great land. . . this land that was made, as Woody Guthrie sang, “for you and me.” This land that was made for living in, not getting rich, although I have nothing against rich people. I will not hazard any more ruminations about these thoughts or feelings just now. But I will leave you with this: a song that i composed back in the ’70’s and recorded on my record album at that time. You can hear it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAQSqwrVdQw or here: Sitting Bull’s Eyes http://www.micahrowland.com/carey/Sitting Bulls Eyes.mp3" http://www.careyrowland.com