Wandering Along the Path: Right Speech

My friend and I saw "The Rider" yesterday, and it is beautiful and heartbreaking.  It focuses on a real family, slightly fictionalized, and the young man who is recovering from a horrific rodeo accident and trying to find what to do with his life after the rodeo life is closed to him forever.  He's sweet, compassionate and kind to his best friend, who is severely disabled from his own rodeo accident, and his disabled sister.  But his gentleness is best shown in his interactions with horses, first Gus, then Apollo.  He is like Buck, in that documentary, who is a legendary horse whisperer.  In this film, the people are Lakota, on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota.  Their poverty and lack of options are painful to observe.  Yet they persevere, living on the land, interlocked with horses, as were their ancestors.  It's a tough life, but with this young man it is a noble life, and we feel honored to have witnessed his bravery and compassion.