" So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart. Trouble no one about their religion: respect others in their view and demand that they respect yours. Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life. Seek to make your life long and its purpose in the service of your people. Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide.
Always give a word or sign of salute when passing a friend, even a stranger, when in a lonely place. Show respect to all people and grovel to none.
When you arise in the morning give thanks for the food and the joy of living. If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies only in yourself. Abuse no one and no thing, for abuse turns the wise ones to fools and robs the spirit of its vision.
When it comes your time to die, be not like those who's hearts are filled with the fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over in a different way. Sing your death song and die like a hero going home."
Now, like I said, that Tecumseh was a pretty wise guy. So lets go through and break it down.
" So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart." That's a tough order to follow. At some time or another everyone has, or will think about death and how they will handle it, and frankly its scary; but here the good ole chief is telling us to live our lives so that we don't fear death. Now this doesn't mean to completely ignore the fact that one day you will inevitably die, because it is a fact that one day you will cease to exist in this life. It means to live your life in a manner that when your time comes to die, you are content with how you used the time that was given to you on this earth and not to fear the crossing over from this life to the next but to embrace it.
"Trouble no one about their religion: respect others in their view and demand that they respect yours." Now Chief T isn't implying that we all drive around with the coexist bumper stickers and t-shirts hugging each other and the trees every chance we get. What he's taking about is a respect for that other person, even if in your eyes they are wrong or even crazy, or as the Bible puts it in Matthew 5:43-45, "love and pray for those who oppose you". He then goes on to say demand that they respect your view/religion. So often this is lost in our society. People want others to respect them and their views but are so often judgmental and quick to write off the same people they demand respect from. But that's not how it works; I'll respect your views and you'll respect mine, even if we don't agree.
"Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life. Seek to make your life and its purpose in the service of your people." This one is quite simple and straight forward: love your life, work daily to make it better and more beautiful and seek to serve those around you to the best of your ability. Have a servants heart.
"Prepare a noble death song for the day you cross over the great divide." Now the death song, to my knowledge, was the way the Indian warriors faced their deaths while at the same time celebrating their life. He was telling his men here to always be ready for when their time ran out, because well, it was an inevitability.
"Always give a word or sign of salute when passing a friend, even a stranger, when in a lonely place. Show Respect to all people and grovel to none." Again it's simple wisdom, when you see a friend speak to them or acknowledge their existence, even speak to a stranger when you're in a lonely place. Show respect to all people and grovel to none. Show respect to everyone, we're all creations of The Almighty and were all loved by him.( Grovel to none , means don't kiss up to people just to win favor with them. You can't please everyone.)
"When you arise in the morning give thanks for the food and the joy of living. If you see no reason in giving thanks, the fault lies only in yourself." Here Tecumseh is giving his men a gut check. When you wake up you should be thankful that you have another day to live and that you have the necessities of life. If you don't see a reason for being thankful for what you have, no one is to blame for that except for you. Check yourself.
"Abuse no one and no thing, for abuse turns the wise ones to fools and robs the spirit of its vision." Here is another gut check. Abuse of anyone or anything turns people to fools and robs the spirit of its vision. Self control is key.
"When it comes your time to die, be not like those who's hearts are filled with the fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over in a different way. Sing your death song and die like a hero going home." This is a reflection of the first paragraph. When your time comes and the clock runs out don't weep and pray for a little more time to do things differently. Die like a hero who is going home. Tecumseh meant for his men to live their lives in a way that when their time comes they didn't regret anything in their lives, but they were content and died like the heroes he knew they were.
Tecumseh's poem gives us all wisdom and insight into how we should live our lives on a daily basis. Think of this poem as a gut check for your everyday life. Did you wake up thankful for another day to live your life? Are you abusing anything ? Do you speak to your friends even strangers during the day? Do you respect others for their views and make sure they respect you for yours? Do you love your life? Do you strive to make your life better, to find the beauty in it? Do you strive to serve others before yourself? Have you been living your life in a way that glorifies God or in a way that when your time runs out you are content and happy with the things you did with your time? If not then what's the point?
Tucker T.
Tucker T.
