I remembered at the last moment that today was the Shad Festival in Innwood Park. Shad are the biggest members of the herring family (up to 13 pounds) and breed in rivers but live out most of their lives in the ocean. As we speak there are an estimated 60 million of them spawning in the Hudson from Kingston on North, thinking of nothing but sex.
I chatted with some of the Indian merchants. One of them is a Brooklynite whose grandfather was a Mohawk ironworker who helped to put up the Chrysler building. He said that whenever he passes the Chrysler building he thinks with pride of his grandfather who helped to put up such a beautiful building. I bought some copal from him. I learned from a jewelry maker in Pennsylvania that if you heat it to melting and let it cool, it looks indistinguishable from amber. The value of amber greatly increases if it has insect inclusions in it. I thought of capturing some cockroaches or flies, embedding them in homemade amber and selling them for a pretty penny.
On stage we had Indian dancers and other performers. One troupe was from Bermuda and another from the Shinnecocks of Long Island. Also on stage was Tom Porter (Sakokwenionkwas “The one who wins”). He is the Spokesperson and Chief Spiritual Leader of the Mohawk Community of Kanatsiohareke in Fonda, New York. He spoke about the spiritual quality embedded in water, for example. “And if you don’t believe it, try going for a week without water.” I don’t doubt the deleterious effect of going without water for a week but I doubt that it has any “spiritual” substance dissolved in it. Why not try an experiment? Live on distilled water for a week and see if there is any difference with water imbued with this “spiritual” substance. I left convinced that the Mohawk religion is just as idiotic as every other religion. For those who might feel strengthened by his sermon and who would enjoy some of the Indian dancing, I will post it to youtube later.
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