Home	(Giovanna was asked by The Taos News to write this article that outlines her thoughts and hopes for the new millennium.This article was published in the Your Turn column in the Taos News on Thursday, January 6th 2000)
	Millennium offers a chance for rebirth by Giovanna Paponetti
	As the new millennium is right around the corner, it is an opportunity to look back into past as well as into the Future. It is a time for a fresh start, a new beginning, a rebirth, a time to learn from the past.I wonder, though, was the past so bad? Has modern technology crippled us so badly that at the touch of a button our whole way of life can crumble? In Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Self Reliance" he states, "Society never advances. It recedes as fast on one side as it gains on the other." "For everything that is given something is taken. Society acquires new arts and loses old instincts."
	Is Y2K a wake up call for us to renew some of our past knowledge of the primitive basics of life that has been vacated in our quest for technology?
	In addition to knowledge of the basic survival methods such as food, clothing and shelter, I would like to see a resurgence of compassion and respect for our earth and all living things, before it is too late and we lose some of our most important resources.
	An awakening of some old values such as taking responsibility for our actions and realizing that the choices we make affect our lives as well as those around us; that it is not what happens to us in life that matters, but how we handle what happens to us.
	One of my greatest concerns is the extinction of many forms of wildlife. A most meaningful experience occurred in August/ September 1999. I witnessed the construction of a barn swallow nest (similar to building adobe) and the hatching of eggs.
	I saw the concern of the parents over the chicks, when magpies were such a constant threat, that I had to wake up every morning at 6 a.m. to chase them away from the nest. I watched as a flock of barn swallows encircled my home daily in the middle of September. I believed that they were encouraging the chicks to learn to fly so they could include them in the migration.
	They learned how to fly but would return to the nest frequently to be fed, as they had not yet learned how to catch flying insects. I was amused one day when I watched the flock, including chicks, chasing the magpies away. I missed them when they finally took off. Strangely, the mother returned for a night and left early the next morning. Several days later, my curiosity got the better of me, and I discovered an egg left behind. I believed that it was a gift for me, and to me this represented a rebirth, new beginnings. One of the most precious gifts I have ever received.
	Native people learned a lot from the animals and incorporated it into their complex, meaningful way of life. I wish everyone could appreciate and learn from all life. In this day and age, we have access to information at our fingertips. Knowledge is power, it should not be used to control others, but used responsibly toward all life, humans and, animals alike. May we, here in Taos, experience these new beginnings with a growing sense of responsibility and need for a brighter future for all.
	Giovanna Paponetti is a muralist, wildlife painter, and photographer living in Ranchos de Taos.