Thursday, April 19, 2012 at 12:04AM Once again Poetry Month is here. Take the time to write something. Your thoughts, ideas, feelings can be done in prose. poetry does not have to rhyme, have rhythm, or certain number of syllables or lines. Just jot down what you feel, pause for a moment, a comma or a new line will express your thoughts as you mean them. So try a poem that is you.
Monday, April 16, 2012 at 2:33PM Sometimes it is necessary to take a moment, a day, a week to appreciate the overlooked beauty of our world. Turn your head to the sky, see the sun, the birds in flight. Turn your heas to the sky see the moon, the stars, constellations at night. Gaze upon the mountains the trees, the stream, the rivers, the oceans the life they feed. Your ears have the ability to hear nature speak, really it is the Creator reminding US to be meek.
Thursday, April 12, 2012 at 6:19PM An examination of internal "self" requires the revelation of deep truths. Many times we tell ourselves lies to hide from things we so not wish to acknowledge or believe. The ability to be vulnerable to oneself is the ability to see the true self. A long look in the mirror, in nakedness, does wondrous things for the soul. See yourself in truth, exposed, be the person you should be if you do not like who you are.
Tuesday, April 10, 2012 at 5:41PM While the mothers in suburban New Jersey drove minivans and shuttled their children to soccer practice, David Good's mother was somewhere deep in the Amazon rainforest, naked and eating tarantulas.
Good's story is bizarre — maybe even shocking.
But at its core, it's a story about how people from radically different worlds can come together, and perhaps aren't so different after all.
During the summer, the East Stroudsburg University graduate biology student traveled to Venezuela, deep into the Amazon rainforest to find his mother, whom he hadn't seen for 19 years.
Good, 25, shared his Amazonian adventure with ESU students last week during a presentation in the Abeloff Center for the Performing Arts.
It all began about 30 years ago, when Good's father, American anthropologist Kenneth Good, traveled to southeastern Venezuela to study the Yanomami tribe.
The tribe is one of the few living examples of a truly primitive culture. Deep in the Amazon, the jungle has provided a natural barrier, limiting the access of explorers and other outsiders to the Yanomami.
They live much in the same way they did thousands of years ago, Good explained.
They don't wear clothing. They rely entirely on the jungle for everything they have, including food and shelter. They have no knowledge of technology.
Kenneth Good was supposed to spend 15 months studying the tribe, but instead became enamored with the culture, living there for more than 12 years.
It was during that time Kenneth Good met a young tribal girl named Yarima.
Eventually, their relationship developed into a romance and the two were married according to Yanomami customs. They had three children: David, Vanessa, 24, and Daniel, 21.
David Good spent the first several years of his life in the jungle before moving to Rutherford, N.J., with his father and mother.
"We were just young kids. We didn't see how different we were," he said of himself and his siblings.
Good went from learning how to shoot lizards in the jungle to learning his ABC's in a suburban New Jersey classroom.
The transition wasn't so easy for Yarima.
Having never experienced any type of technology, she was confused and at times frightened when she first came to America.
Good recalled a story his father told of the first night he and Yarima stayed in a hotel. Yarima caught a glimpse of herself in a hotel mirror and ran to hide behind the bed. She didn't understand what caused the reflection and thought it could be trying to capture her soul.
Another time Yarima told her husband she wanted to take a walk. When Kenneth Good looked out the window, he saw his young wife strolling down the street completely naked.
Coming from a culture where clothing was seen as restrictive, she didn't see why she needed to wear it all the time.
The first time she saw a car, she thought it was an animal because it "growled" when the key was put into the ignition.
When David was 5 years old, his mother made the difficult and painful decision to separate from her family and return to her life in the jungle.
David had no contact with her for 19 years. He wasn't even sure if she was still alive.
He spent two years coordinating a return trip to Venezuela with the help of Venezuelan anthropologist Hortensia Caballero.
After graduating with a bachelor's degree in biology from ESU last year, he left for a three-month trip to the Amazon.
Getting to the remote village involved a three-hour journey up the Orinoco River, where an experienced guide had to paddle against the flow of the river and maneuver around rapids.
When Good arrived, he was told his mother was at a village 45 minutes away, so he was forced to anxiously wait while a relative went to retrieve her.
"Though we were of different tongues, different languages, and different worlds, the cultural barrier did not dissolve the bond a mother has for her child," Good said.
Though Good can speak some of the native language, he was so nervous seeing her again, he could only speak English. Yarima recognized the word "mom" and began to cry.
Good also met his half-brother during the trip and reconnected with other relatives, including his uncle who gave him the name, "Detour," because David's life path is not straight, but a circle bringing him back to the Yanomami tribe.
"During every stage of the trip, I was in a constant state of culture shock," he said. "You have to be able to keep an open mind."
Perhaps most shocking for David was when his mother presented him with two young brides.
It is a custom in the culture for men to become betrothed to a young girl to provide for and protect her, but it could be years before they consummate their marriage.
"I tried different ways to finagle myself out of the situation," he said, including telling one of his young brides he already had a wife in America.
The girl replied that she was Good's Yanomami wife, so it didn't matter.
The first thing Good did when he got home and logged onto Facebook was tell his girlfriend, "Guess what? I have two wives!"
Good returned home Oct. 21.
He hopes to eventually return to the Amazon, though he would never stay as long as his father did.
He recently was offered a grant by National Geographic to return and study the tribe.
"My goal is to serve as a bridge between them and the modern world," he said.
He is particularly interested in the medical care the Yanomami receive.
Because the tribe is closed off from outside civilization, they are very distrustful of new visitors. It can be a problem for doctors who come to the area.
Good hopes to eventually become a medical anthropologist and provide care for growing problems in the area, such as flu and drug-resistant malaria.
"The human interaction there was so genuine," he said. "They don't suffer from loneliness. There is no post-traumatic stress, depression or other conditions that I think are the result of our modern society."
Good was most impacted by the simple "essence of human communication" he experienced there.
"I never felt so connected to a people as I did when we were sitting around a fire, trying to keep warm and eating plantains (a native fruit)," he said. "In the end, we are not so different."
Saturday, April 7, 2012 at 6:04PM The coincidence of two religions this holiday should remind us of the great sacrifices made those thousands of years ago. Be grateful in the opportunity to redefine what faith means. What is the exhibition of love of a people, the service and praise due that each one of us portrays on a daily basis? Take the time during this reminder to examine oneself, and see the blessings within the storm.