I absolutely value my friendship, relationship with the Chief, his wife, his family and the rest of the Haudenosaunee (people of the Iroquois). The values that I possess as a Human is because of my stay with them from the time I was a teenager. The Chief, as some of the other Chiefs, was a man of an enormous amount of WISDOM and with an equal amount of HUMANITY. The wife of the Chief equaled her husband’s qualities. They as a people possess EMPATHY, COMPASSION, LOVE, VULNERABILITY, all the qualities to be a decent human. I so wanted to be as they, so I learned from them as much as I could. THEY ALSO HAVE A GREAT SENSE OF HUMOR. 

Their sense of humor was evident on one weekend in the winter I again spent some time with the Haudenosaunee at the house of the Chief, his wife and children. It was very, very cold and extremely WINDY. It was evening time and we were sitting around talking. The Chief and his wife were doing beadwork while they were talking to me. They were educating me about life. I had to urinate so I excused myself and went outside, we couldn’t use the bathroom because the water pipes froze. I did not want to walk to the outhouse in the snow so the Chief said just go by the side of the house.

I did, it was very WINDY and bitter cold. When I came back in, the Chief’s wife howled with laughter. The Chief looked up from his bead work and said, “CITY BOY, THIS IS A LESSON FOR YOU, NEVER PEE AGAINST THE WIND.” It was so cold I did not feel the whole front of my pants was soaked! A lesson well learned.

TAKE CARE, ALWAYS STAY WELL, ALWAYS STAY HEALTHY.  HAVE FAITH. THANK YOU.

Categories: PERSPECTIVES

ron winnegrad

Ron Winnegrad has been a Perfumer and teacher for 46 years. As a perfumer, Ron has been able to express the world he sees through a rainbow of olfactive and emotive visions. As a teacher, Ron has helped others to see fragrance through his own multi sensorial lens.