Becoming a Shirt Wearer is one of the highest formal honors in Lakota Native American Indian culture. Shirt men, like Chiefs Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse accepted the shirt, as they felt it was their purpose to serve the greater good. Once they took the shirt, they endeavored to live their lives the best way they knew how, as an example for others. J.Marshall III, (2012). The Lakota Way of Strength and Courage (Kindle Locations 1559-1563). Sounds True. Kindle Edition.
There’s much we can learn from the Lakota way of life, especially its social value for leading by example. No matter the roles we take on in life, we are called to be examples of goodness, compassion, honesty, decency, empathy, wisdom, and resilience, for those of whom we are in charge.
We are all called to lead by example, no matter the formality of our roles. We are all shirt wearers. We guide children, students, patients, parishioners, employees, fans, and constituents. Our roles are vehicles to represent the most sublime characteristics of human nature. Sadly, some people fail to live up to this call, and, instead, let their selfish desires lead them (Kenneth Lay; Bernie Madoff; Jerry Sandusky; Cardinal Roger Mahoney; Dr. Conrad Murray; Ex-Congressman and New York Mayoral aspirant Anthony Wiener; and San Diego Mayor Bob Filner). Greed, fame, power, and limitless grandiosity motivate their decisions and behavior. Just yesterday, I learned of a Michigan oncologist, Dr. Farid Fata, who gave needless chemotherapy to his patients to line his pockets with 35-million-dollars over a two year period.
These are extraordinary events of dishonesty, immorality, and selfishness, most certainly. But, every day ordinary people decide against the welfare of other people, to satisfy more selfish personal needs and desires. They may maliciously spread gossip about people, do not pay back school loans, or resist drug or alcohol treatment despite their spouse and children’s requests. If you ask them if they are of good character, of course, most will say yes. But, can we step in and out of good character as it fits our purpose? Can we compartmentalize goodness, compassion, honesty, decency, empathy, and wisdom as meant for some people and situations but not for others?
Becoming a Shirt Wearer in Lakota culture is the highest formal honor because it speaks to a level and quality of emotional and spiritual maturity (character development) to which not everyone aspires. Shirt Wearers were ordinary people, like us. But, they had emotionally and spiritually developed to a point where they could exercise forethought, wisdom, and control over their behavior. They were expected to rise above personal matters, and if they did not they were stripped of their Shirt Wearer role, as was the case for Chief Crazy Horse. He remained a shirt wearer until 1870, when a dispute arose after a Lakota woman (Black Buffalo Woman) left her husband for Chief Crazy Horse. The woman’s husband shot Crazy Horse in the face with a pistol. This quarrel cost Crazy Horse his formal position as a shirt wearer.
We are neither Saints nor Indian Chiefs, but we can aspire to the qualities and character of the Lakota Shirt Wearers. We just have to want to nurture these characteristics in us. Then, we will be mindful of how our thoughts, feelings, and actions may stir up selfish conflicts and dramas of the ego that harm other people (Becoming Mindful; Strengthening the Empathy Muscle). This doesn’t mean that we don’t have personal needs and desires. It is more that we are very much aware and present to the ways that our more self-centered drives may get in the way of constructing solutions that show our goodness, compassion, wisdom, and resilience.
Shirt wearers have mature psychological and spiritual understanding, of themselves and of human nature. They are dedicated to carrying out their roles as leaders, mentors, advisors, caregivers, and helpers. They let the ethos of the shirt-wearer guide their actions, so that their decisions are good for all.
This reminds me of a wonderful interaction between the Roman Caesar Commodus and his sister Lucilla, in the DreamWorks’ film the Gladiator (2000). Lucilla is warning Commodus about his plan to get rid of the Senate and cautions him that the Roman people will not be happy about this. “Rome has always had a Senate“, she says; “It is what makes Rome great,” to which he sarcastically replies:
“What is the greatness of Rome?” “I will give the people gladiatorial games, and they will love me for it.”
Lucilla: “Greatness is a vision, brother.”
As is the greatness of Rome a vision, so is the greatness of a person. If we are to culturally live up to the ideals of the roles we carry out in life, then we have to ask ourselves ~ How do my thoughts, feelings and actions affect the whole of the group? Shirt wearers dedicate themselves to letting their higher natures rather than their egos guide their actions. This aim and the positive impact on people in their care was their reward.
We have to grow into the identity of a shirt-wearer. But, Rome wasn’t built in a day, as they say. If we continue to learn as much as we can about our psychological strengths and weaknesses, we have a better chance of living up to the ideals of our life roles.
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