Recently my son and I spent a sunny morning in Northern Idaho building a tipi. It was a place for him and so we made the opening big enough for a kid, but too tight for an adult.
Since I was a kid I've been enthralled by Native American culture, and am especially drawn to the great tribes of the Western Plains. I'm sure I'm romanticizing a bit but it seems to me that the tribal culture was more "real." I think there is something inherently positive about a society in which everyone lives in a home of their own creation. Your character is on full display when what you own is a reflection of the pride and care you take in living life.
Modern Western society is so full of B.S. We've created a society of illusion - one in which you are what you appear to be, which is often in direct opposition to what you actually are. Line up Ronald Reagan, Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger and John Kerry and ask "who is the war hero?" Chances are you wouldn't get the right answer. Love him or hate him it doesn't matter, the fact remains that Senator Kerry is a bona fide warrior - he has the medals and scars to prove it - but that just never caught on with the U.S. public because he doesn't fit the Hollywood mold.
If anything I hope I've taught my children to take pride in what they do, because in the end we are what we create, and what you say, claim or brag makes no difference.
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