In honor and memory of Mr. Ronald White, of St. Paul, MN, I set out this evening to find a documentary on the Ojibwe people and/or language. His story, as a part of that people, is not mine to tell (in so far as I know some miniscule part). So I will share this documentary. It does not sugar coat the past, but neither does it dwell on it. It dwells on the present and the future of the native language and culture of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and other areas around the Great Lakes.

Two of many items that grabbed my attention and reflection: (1) opening comments noting how many people are concerned with the loss of habitat, but are not also concerned or knowledgeable about the loss of cultures. (2) "You don't have to say 'respect your elders' in Ojibwe - its built right in" -- "elderly man" is "great being," and "elderly woman" is "she who holds together". Words for the sun and grandfather are the same, as are grandmother and the moon. You could ask "is the moon up?" and mean "is grandmother stirring?"

Watch First Speakers: Restoring the Ojibwe Language on PBS. See more from KTCA.

The words "thou" and "thee" are unfamiliar to most of us, except in the context of sacred writ (particularly the King James Bible). Thus many of us think of "thou" as very formal. In some Dostoyevsky novel, I encountered something to the effect of "why did you address me with the familiar thou?". That got me thinking: is "thou" is an outdated form of familar address, like "tú" compared to "su" in Spanish? Well, more or less, though that distinction may not do it justice in the context of sacred literature.

A while back I received an e-mail: a Spanish-speaker in my area had called 1-800-22-UNITE to learn more about the Bahá'í Faith, could I return the call? I got in touch with the individual, and nervously chatted for a few minutes in a mixture of Spanish and English (her English was better than my Spanish). She had already read about the Bahá'ís online and wanted to know more. So we agreed to study a book called Reflections on the Life of the Spirit together. This small but profound workbook is composed of three units: Understanding the Bahá'í Writings, Prayer, and Life and Death. Each one contains a number of passages from the Bahá'í writings as well as questions designed to help the person remember and apply the text.

Wisdom Sits in Places is the name of a remarkable little book of linguistic ethnography about "landscape and language among the Western Apache." Written by rancher and professor Keith H. Basso, who had spent decades working with this group of Apache before composing this opus, the book is easy to overlook: file under boring academic anthropology. For anyone interested in gaining a greater appreciation for the diverse ways we humans think and act, both in and about this world, doing so is a certain mistake.

Responding to an e-mail discussion that started with the article Islamic Fascism: The Propaganda of Our Times.

There is little doubt that the language we use and hear shapes our perceptions — and action — in the wider world (cf Sapir-Whorf hypothesis). Is it accurate to call someone who is a "terrorist", who is a Muslim, and who is motivated by his religious beliefs, an "Islamic terrorist?"

People in the South believe that Minnesotans (and other Northerners, but particularly in the Upper Midwest) call cokes "pop" or "soda." But people here (Minnesota) don't seem to believe that Southerners, such as myself, call all fizzy fake/sugary beverages "coke." As in "We'll have 2 cokes please - one diet, and one Dr. Pepper." And now I have the statistics to prove it.