an allegiance to gratitude

the pledge has no place here

hi friends,

My disgust and anger with the current state of the union continues to know no bounds. Every time I think it can’t get worse—well, you finish the sentence. There is nothing beautiful about the bill the Republican party passed. As citizens, we are not the people; we are the product of a system that’s been bought and sold to capitalism and the interests of an elite few.

Many can recall a time when we were required to place our hand over our heart to pledge our allegiance:

I pledge Allegiance to the flag
of the United States of America
and to the Republic for which it stands,
One nation under God, indivisible,
With liberty and Justice for all.

🤬😡🤬😡🤬

This string of emojis is indicative of my state of mind, interwoven with a few tears. While I am fully aware the US government was never built on the premise of liberty and justice for all, this year, the hypocrisy of this oath has become all the more visible.

I’ve never really been a flag-waving Fourth of July kind of person, and it’s not my place to instruct others how to celebrate anything, but on this Fourth of July, I’m opting out entirely.

What follows (mostly verbatim) are the words of Robin Wall Kimmerer shared from the ancestry of the Iroquois Nation and repeated in Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teaching of Plants.

One of the chapters begins with a story of a time when her sixth-grade daughter refused to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, who refused to “stand there and lie” because “it’s not exactly liberty if they force you to say it?”

Kimmerer then offers an alternative pledge—one recited by the children of the Onondaga Nation every school week on the reserve close to her home. What follows is an excerpt¹ from the Thanksgiving Address:

Today we have gathered and when we look around upon the faces around us we see that the cycles of life continue. We have been given the duty to live in balance and harmony with each other and all living things. So let us bring our minds together as one as we give greetings and thanks to each other as People. Now our minds are one.

The Thanksgiving Address is a reminder we cannot hear too often, that we human beings are not in charge of the world, but are subject to the same forces as all the rest of life.

The Thanksgiving Address reminds us that duties and gifts are two sides of the same coin. Eagles were given the gift of far sight, so it is their duty to watch over us. Rain fulfills its duty as it falls, because it was given the gift of sustaining life.

What is the duty of humans?

If gifts and responsibilities are one, then asking “What is our responsibility?” is the same thing as asking “What is our gift?”

Imagine making a pledge not to a flag or political loyalty but to interdependence and mutual responsibility.

Imagine a leader grounded in generosity, sacrificing on behalf of the people rather than putting his personal gain first.

Imagine if our government meetings began with the Thanksgiving Address. What if our leaders first found common ground before separating ourselves for our differences?

Imagine raising children in a culture in which gratitude for the abundance we have received is the first priority.

Imagine pledging reciprocity to the living world and to the land beneath our feet.

We are thankful to our Mother the Earth, for she gives us everything that we need for life. She supports our feet as we walk about upon her. It gives us joy that she still continues to care for us, just as she has since the beginning of time. To our Mother, we send thanksgiving, love, and respect. Now our minds are one.

I grew up in Western New York, on land stolen from the Seneca People, and I wonder what it might have been like to begin each day with the Thanksgiving Address, to greet and give thanks to one another as a People, rather than to pledge allegiance to a flag.

While I can’t go back, I can go forward and begin my day in gratitude. To listen to song sparrows and yellow warblers outside my window. To hike the trails of Cathedral Woods, noticing the abundance of bird vetch and rosa rugosa, of glossy buttercups and comfrey along the way. To whisper thank you to the ocean that holds the vastness of this tiny island and all that it has taught me. To sit with the question, what is my gift, and how can I share with others what has been freely given to me?

We have now arrived at the place where we end our words. Of all the things we have named, it is not our intention to leave anything out. If something was forgotten, we leave it to each individual to send such greetings and thanks in their own way. And now our minds are one.

The pledge has no place here.

Thanks for reading ~

xosew

gathering (in grace) notes • writing circle

Begin your week gathering in good company!

Every Monday, 7:30 - 8:30 am ET, I host an online writing circle to encourage a creative start to the week. Each week, you are invited to come as you are. We greet one another before sitting in a moment of silence. I’ll offer a poem and a prompt for those days you don’t know how to begin, and then we write for 60 minutes with our screens on or off—that’s it!

This is a free offering for all. If you find you are attending regularly and wish to make a donation in support of maintaining the space, you can always buy me a book. register once, and the link is yours forever ✍🏻

one more space… . .. join me on retreat .. .

Braiding Sweetgrass: Breathing Stories

September 17-21, 2025 | Monhegan, ME

For the fifth year, I invite you to join me for an intimate retreat on Monhegan. Our program is an embodied book group, journeying and journaling through the wisdom and words of Robin Wall Kimmerer’s memoir Braiding Sweetgrass with the magic of Monhegan. I’m thrilled to consider the possible ways Kimmerer’s storytelling will become the guide to writing our own. Together, we will write through the island's topography, the geography of our senses, and our storied experiences. There will be ample time to search for sea glass and hike the trails through Cathedral Woods to the rocky shores of Pebble Beach.

Through writing, ritual, and restorative yoga, we will meditate, celebrate, and honor the variations of our authentic voices, as can only happen when you find yourself on this artist's island 10 miles out to sea.

lingering line… . ..

the land knows you, even when you are lost… . .

Robin Wall Kimmerer

1. You can read the Thanksgiving Address in its entirety here.