In 1993, an American Indian elder addressed a gathering at the United Nations in New York.
Now a successful Salt Lake businessman and community leader has dedicated his life to expanding the message of this gathering — that Utahns and people all over the world begin a more simple, respectful and harmonious way of living.
Five years ago, Steve Paul was a successful business owner and longtime Salt Lake psychotherapist. Today he is coming out of a years-long, self-imposed retreat. He has written a book called "Hollow Bones" and hopes it will trigger consideration for readers on the level of the profound personal and historic experiences on which it is based.
"I didn't start out to write a book," Paul said recently from his Salt Lake home. "The book found me."
For people who feel overwhelmed by world circumstances, Paul believes the fiction novel, available in local independent bookstores, offers hope. "The book provides a way to model for the next generation or even our own," Paul said. "It is about possibility in the face of change."
Change is something with which Paul and his wife, Jackie Pratt, are quite familiar.
Back in the late 1980s, Paul and Pratt operated a small bookstore called the Golden Braid from a storefront on 300 South. In 1995, they expanded the business and moved into a bigger complex on 500 East.
Paul and Pratt took great love and care with their business, which included an expanded Golden Braid bookstore, the Oasis Cafe and an art gallery. They decorated the space with artwork, sculpture and bits of culture from around the world. Some of items were for sale; many came from the couple's own collection. The business provides a new age-flavored haven for many in Salt Lake City.
"We felt really good about the physical facility but soon were overwhelmed with the volume and demands of the business," Paul says today.
Managing 55 employees was exhausting. "It was incredibly stressful," Paul said. "And it was constant."
There were factors the couple hadn't considered. Astonishing theft, for one thing, from silverware to statues.
Back in 1996, just before Christmas, someone stole a 3-foot Buddha from the rear entrance to the business. A 5-foot-tall cactus in a heavy clay pot also went missing, as did a Chinese Ming dynasty table.
Meanwhile, Paul was maintaining his private practice above the restaurant and bookstore. But he was always on call. If a cook didn't show up, Paul went down between clients to help out in the kitchen. "We were lost in the chaos," Paul said. One year on a buying trip to India, Jackie Pratt and Steve Paul looked at each other and said, "We're done."
It took a year and a half to sell the facility.
For months after that, Paul did nothing but read and sit. The patio of his Avenues home became his classroom.
"I really needed time to step out of everything that determines how you see the world." So indeed, he stepped out of everything — he did not renew his license to practice psychotherapy. He let lapse all dues and memberships to associations.
"Professional life, commitments — all the things that keep you running, I let them all go."
So Paul, the author of three books, went into retreat.
At some point he picked up a book by Devra West. It resonated with Paul, and he decided to look up the author. West was living in Montana and hosting workshops on land once occupied by Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce Indians. Paul visited her and attended workshops and discussions.
Having cleared out the clutter in his life during his "retreat," Paul says he became clear about his mission for moving forward.
"I was more alive than I had ever been in my life," he said. "I had a remarkable feeling of relatedness to others." And his attraction to the beliefs of Native American leaders grew.
"Hollow Bones" was born in a joining of these personal and historic experiences.
The book is a mechanism for conveying a message — a message delivered by Chief Oren Lyons, who opened the "Year of Indigenous Peoples" before delegates of the United Nations Organization Dec. 10, 1993.
He spoke of the Native American "Law of Life," or the "Law of Regeneration," where life and creation are born in the seeds that grow food and plants on Earth.
Lyons said in his address his ancestors had also warned of dark times — times when water would be polluted and the "world would be covered with smoke."
"We were told there would come a time when, tending our gardens, we would pull up our plants and the vines would be empty. Our precious seed would begin to disappear." He spoke of concerns about toxic dumps and nuclear waste. He spoke of over-fishing, over-cutting of timber and toxic chemicals.
"So then, what is the message I bring to you today? ... We are the generation with the responsibilities and the option to choose the Path of Life for the future of our children. Or the life and path which defies the Laws of Regeneration. "
The so-called "sustainable development" of the past few centuries cannot last, he said.
"We can still alter our course. It is not too late. We still have options. We need the courage to change our values to the regeneration of our families, the life that surrounds us. Given this opportunity, we can raise ourselves."
"Hollow Bones" takes place in the not-too-distant future when many of the changes predicted by Native American spiritual leaders have come true. It is the story of a man's life that has unraveled since the death of his wife and a journey toward a new beginning.
Paul is worried about consumption. He's worried about the world's resources and environment. He's worried about the way people spend and set their priorities.
"As the old structures decline and fail — as I absolutely believe they are — there is a corresponding rise of these other possibilities. It's an alternative way of being in the world."
He is living his own advice. Now Paul walks everywhere from his Avenues home. He rarely drives a car. He spends the morning meditating. He takes time to write and do things that are impossible in the chaos of regular life.
Paul's book is not about activism, he says. It is not about a singular issue like global warming. "It's about heeding that warning that Native Americans gave so many years ago," he said.
Ultimately, the message, he says, is, "Through you, good things can happen."
Champions for change
"Champions for change" is a periodic feature in the Deseret Morning News that will spotlight ordinary Utahns taking extraordinary steps to bring positive change to their community, country or world.
If you know a person who's working to make Utah a better place, call Lucinda Dillon Kinkead at 237-2191, or e-mail lucy@desnews.com.