Stoking the fires

When I lifted the lid on the Peace Fire this morning, overnight the eternal flame inside had almost gone out and only a thin trail of grey smoke indicated it was not yet dead.

Carefully, thoughtfully, quietly, I tended to the fire’s needs and made the flame visible once again.

The care of this world is a fragile business. Whether it be the Peace Fire, the care of the environment or the health of any relationship, they can so easily be undone through neglect, forgetfulness or an uncaring or pessimistic attitude.

“Fragile” is not too strong a word to describe the tenuous grip that love, peace and the environment have upon people as they become “off the agenda” when priorities have to be made; especially economic priorities. It behoves all of us, therefore, to daily do those little actions that collectively keep the flames of hope burning the world over.

As seen in the Balkans and elsewhere, peace and love can so easily be dismantled when one’s moral foundations are cemented in centuries of fear and mistrust. The same holds true for the environment movement where, because of deep cultural and religious roots that embed fear of the earth into nearly everything, environmental protection can be dismantled as quickly as a spider’s web in the wind when fears of job losses or mortgage payments or consumption habits get moved into a zone of uncertainty.

Whether it be peace, love, or a healthy world that we long for, none will arrive at our doorstep prepaid or remain for long unless nurtured and carefully looked after.

This past weekend the Green’s held an art auction to raise funds for Christine Milne’s federal Senate campaign. The sculpture I donated, ‘Five Ancestral Stones’ (see blog 24 May), sold for $3,100. The total raised from all the donated art was over $55,000. I was pleased, the other artists were pleased, the organisers were pleased, and most pleased was Christine Milne.

Compared to the many hundreds of thousands of dollars raised by the major political parties through corporate, union or vested interest groups, $55,000 might seem a paltry amount. Considering the cost of television advertisements, it would probably only buy a few seconds of time.

But what it represents to me, and I am sure to all those other supporters of Christine’s bid for the Senate, is dignity.

Yes…. a simple dignity gained from tending, in whatever way possible, the fragile fires of peace, love and hope upon and for this earth.