BLACK RAVEN

One of my guys at work told me about a psychic named "Black Raven" and how unbelievably accurate he was. I thought it would be fun to have the experience of visiting a psychic. My husband greatly disapproves of fortune-telling, but agreed to go with me because he thought that Black Raven lived in a bad section of town. I made an appointment and went into a darkened room with walls covered with Native American paraphernalia. Black Raven went into a trance and proceeded to tell me about my past lives. In one of my past lives, according to Black Raven, I was a Mohawk warrior and that I had taken many scalps in battle. In another life I was a Navajo woman who traded goods with other tribes. After he came out of the trance, Black Raven asked, "Have you never wondered why you've had such a passion about Native Americans?" I asked how he knew that and he asked, "Didn't you get in trouble at school?" I was amazed by that and by all of the other items he told me.

When I was in the fifth grade, Mrs. Mossbarger told us that Custer was a hero. I raised my hand and said that Sitting Bull was THE hero, because he was defending his land. She took me upstairs to Mr. Biddle's office to call my mother. I heard her tell Mr. Biddle that I was "impudent" and should be "expelled" (I didn't know what either meant until I went home!). Mother later told me her side of the conversation as I had only heard his side. My mother told Mr. Biddle that I was right. Mr. Biddle told her that I should apologize to Mrs. Mossbarger. My mother told him that she reared her children NOT to apologize because she believed that they wouldn't say things they didn't believe, and that I had a right to my own opinion. When Mr. Biddle hung up from my mother, he told me to return to the classroom and that he needed to talk to Mrs. Mossbarger.

When I went home, I felt quite triumphant! As soon as I went in the house, my mother said, "What is wrong with you; what do you know from Indians?" I was stunned and I said, "But you told them I was right!" She replied, "Of course I'd tell THEM that you're right!" When I told my mother about the "impudent" and "expelled" words being used, she was furious. She called Mr. Biddle at home and told him that she thought the teacher was "unprofessional" to say those things in front of a child! I felt triumphant again! Gloating, I said, "You told him that I was right!" Mother turned to me and lambasted me once again about not behaving myself and causing trouble.

But one thing I knew for sure was her unconditional love and that it was us against the world!