At the Forest Rally this past Saturday, ten thousand people walked and carried banners through the streets to voice and display their concern over the continual destruction of the Tasmanian rain forests.
At one particular moment in the march, as I looked at the massed crowd curving its way back and further back again into the heart of downtown Hobart, I felt immensely elated and joyful and part of a whole greater than any one person.
Being with the masses was a spiritual high. Chanting, walking with a slow, rhythmic cadence, waving placards, beaming smiles and absorbing the positive energy coming off everyone, it was enough to induce an immediate enlightenment. What a buzz. However, there is the saying: “after enlightenment, the dishes”.
By Monday I was shovelling dirt again.
The last three days have seen me in the ditches laying water pipes. Over half a kilometre (500 yards) of pipe. My legs beg to sit down. My back would love a massage.
.
This is the dishes aspect of life.
In the end, though, there doesn’t seem to be too much of a difference between Saturday and today, because this afternoon, as I looked at the twin pipes (one for irrigation, one for drinking) curving their way along the ditch, I felt immensely elated and joyful and part of a whole greater than any one person.
These pipes represent both the drinking water for all the many guests who will visit Windgrove over the coming years and the dam water for the small orchard and garden where apples, tomatoes, spinach, squash, blueberries and other beings will come to life and flourish. Such nourishment.
As an aside to the Forest Rally, let me say how proud I felt that in this tiny state of Tasmania such an enormous gathering could take place to protect the trees. Would this have happened in America? I doubt it. In Europe or anywhere else? I doubt it. In every place other than Tasmania, the environment is off the agenda. Only here will people still take the time to walk the streets to keep the environment politicised.
May peace prevail on earth. May the forests be saved. May clean water be freely available to all.
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