When I sought out these spiritual elders, things were different then.
Some families break up the household in a very gentle way, over time, with a living elder distributing things quietly.
A Kalispel elder kicked things off with a prayer, first in the delicate Salish language and then in English.
Marat Safin, a hard-hitting Russian who dominated Sampras in the 2000 Open final, said of the two American elders, "Many things to learn from them".
As rice and sweet potato cooked in the flames, Lavery recalled, he asked the elders what things he might find in the forests.
"If we can re-empower the traditional local centers of authority, the tribal shuras and elders and things like that and put an overlay of human rights on that, isn't that a step in the right direction?
Those just entering the family-business ranks can likely teach their elders a thing or two, like how to make the most of new technology and social media as tools to grow the company.
The elder men said things like, "I now feel like a visitor," or "The future is for the blacks".
This is what one other elder said: Three things have refused to leave us: hunger, poverty and war.
Fans of all things Elder Scrolls got to fill their boots three ways.
Later, during my meeting with General Dostum, I mentioned my exchange with the elder, and that things seemed to be going badly in the bid to get Bergdahl back.
