"Meanwhile we're furiously seeing green..."

"And the map has started tearing along its creases due to overuse...

When in reality it's never needed folds.

And the air is withholding the sound of its wellspring.

And our heads approach a density reminiscent of the infinite productivity of the center of the sun.

And therein lies the garnered wisdom that has never died."

- The Books, "Smells Like Content"

"The idea that people's welfare can be promoted by systematically devastating the environment on which day of ultimately we all depend, and by ruthlessly sacrificing the future regardless of the interests of future generations, can only be described as a lunatic. How is it that such profound irrationality has taken such hold of our actions and words to undermine our security, fundamentally impair our quality of life and now threaten our very survival?"

- Jonathon Porritt, "Seeing Green" (Basil Blackwell Publisher Inc., 1984), p21

In a minute there is time, says T.S. Eliot, for visions and revisions... and "that was not what I meant at all". The visionary nature of his writing seems to be overlooked just as often perhaps as William Blake was in his time, despite the formal recognition he received after the publication of "The Wasteland". His reason entwined with overwhelming passion has always inspired a thread of creativity and interest in learning and understanding in his readers whom are most involved and compelled by the ideas and wisdom imbued within his prose.

This day, a whole tapestry of varying minutes, has been painted in hues of all kinds by all the people who have envisioned and revised these moments, and lived within them. The Proustian outlook would stretch this picture out beyond the visible horizon and I may be tempted to at first sketch and then paint carefully its content making revisions as I continue. But, as I was loathe to admit when reading Proust, the length and scope of such a project might take the writer far from the reality and the moments he has lived within, as I was myself whilst reading In Search of Lost Time and perhaps taking what is understood and trying to present at least an aspect of its depth might be more worthwhile. So the tapestry appears as a whole, and the individual experience is valued not simply because of itself because of its involvement and simply because the tapestry would not seem so bright and compelling without it.

Rather that digress further, let me introduce the subject matter: the world as we know it is unstable and it is not required by any means to offer us the consolation we seek if we do not recognize the wholeness not just of out human community but also of our position in time and space, and our intrinsic need to recognize that the world we live within also lives within us and that our irrational need for growth is more harmful than it ever was:

"Instead of looking into space through Galileo's telescope, let us look down at ourselves. Imagine, if you will, the proverbial little green person from Mars taking stock of Planet Earth, and the UK in particular. Having anticipated a model of rationality, might 'our Martian' nor be surprised to find:

that it's apparently possible to keep the peace only by threatening the total annihilation of the planet; 

that it's possible to achieve 'progress' and further growth only by the wilful destruction of our life-support systems;

that so civilized a nation bats not an eyelid as it inflicts terrible suffering on its fellow creatures;

that we obsessively promote the most expensive and most dangerous energy source to the exclusion of all others;

that millions remain unemployed when there's so much important work crying out to be done;

that millions more carry out soulless, mind-destroying jobs that make nothing of their resources and creativity;

that we ravage our best farming land to grow food surpluses that are then thrown away or sold off cheap to the 'enemy';

that we consider the best use of the proceeds of North Sea oil is to keep people on the dole;

that in one part of the world millions die of starvation, while people here die of over-indulgence;

that we spend as much on useless weapons of war as we do on education or health;

that our 'planners' have allowed rural communities to waste away, while making inner-city areas uninhabitable;

that we pollute the planet in the very process of trying to get rich enough to do something about pollution?"

-Jonathon Porritt, "Seeing Green" (Basil Blackwell Publisher Inc., 1984), p18

It is getting a lot simpler to say what I mean, as I have been admitting in earlier articles. The catalyst for this article itself was the great movement of people who protested during this day, this tapestry of moments in which so much can change. It is apparent that we feel that we move further from our purpose and our trust has been ruptured by a government that does not appear to work with us towards a more stable and community-based future. T.S. Eliot tried in "The Wasteland" to bring the world to its senses, and evoke that compassion which was needed to see the world as it actually was; a vast and incomprehensible whole which needs to be understood or else, as he suggests "I will show your fear in a handful of dust". The question is between fear and love, and whether we are dust in the wind or life-from of overwhelming potential and creativity. The latter has that human warmth.

The truth is that community and a sense of warmth and compassion can only be cultivated, like a garden. The term "grass-roots" is compelling because of the inherent acceptance that humans, just like the grass in the soil, rely upon natural compassion and themselves, and their own initiative to bring them to positive conclusions in which families, friends and a whole community of trust can blossom and evolve. These seemingly simple messages of love show how simple an answer it can be, yet it is complex, as trust relationships often are. I will pull this colorful thread further throughout the week and see what sort of conclusions I might reach.