people agreed with her and they invited all the other tribes to come to their village to a very important thing.
So all the invited tribes came to the village and were told the plan of how they would push up the sky. They all agreed it was a good idea, but someone pointed out a problem. Each tribe spoke a different language and so they each had a different word for “push.” How would they know when to push together?
They all talked and argued and thought, but no one had an idea as how to solve their problem. But they knew if there is a problem that no one person could solve that they needed to talk to an elder. Elders bring the wisdom of their years to any problem. So they went to the oldest man in the village and explained the problem to him.
The old man said he needed to think about it for two days. They came back in two days and he told them they shall use the word “ya-how” to push together. “Ya-how” means push together and work together. He said when he called out the word they would all call out together and push up on that heavy sky. He then told some of the men to go into the forest and cut down tall trees to make poles. And this was done.
So everyone put their hands on the sky and waited. The old man called out “ya-how!” and they all echoed him by calling out the word and pushing together. He called it out again and again and each time they all responded and kept pushing up on the sky.
When they pushed the sky as high as their hands allowed them to, the old man told them to use the poles to continue pushing the sky up using the same word. And so they pushed the sky higher and higher until it reached where the sky is today.
The people say if we work together we can do great things, even push up the sky.
And that is all.
What advice did the elder give that did more than solve the simple need to find a common word to work together?
What do you think was the point of thinking about the problem for a while before answering? Do we modern folks expect an immediate response or will we wait for a wise response?
The old man did not explain his reasoning for his decisions. Why did the people go along unquestioningly?