This week Brendan of Earthweal sets a task for the imagination – “What is the turning point that gets us out of this labyrinth of fated humanity? Who or what must we embrace? How do we find our way into the Totality? What are our responsibilities as the only critter in that mix with the power to shape according to our will? How to merge with the squiggly collective when we can’t come close to herding the collective will of Humanity?“
https://earthweal.com/2021/03/29/earthweal-weekly-challenge-turning-points-chthulucene-squiggles/
In the future
An excerpt from my unfinished scifi novel – in this scene a woman who lives in a complex network of thriving communities tells a girl from an isolated and rigidly controlled society how the communities came into being:-
‘This is what I wanted to show you.’ Kya pointed to steep sandstone pinnacle riddled with shadowy caves. ‘The first people to arrive in Jedahra caved out this place. They tunnelled dwelling places into the soft rock for protection from the heat and storms when the upheavals of climate change were at their worst…
Old songs from that time talk about how the people felt living in the caves connected them to the planet. Jedahra grew out of the understanding that the wellbeing of humanity depends on the wellbeing of the earth.’ She gave Terran a sharp look. ‘That’s why the others have been so suspicious of you. To them you still carry the values of the old culture that led to climate change,’ she said.
Terran gave her a stunned look. ‘Sustainability is a key principle at The Institute,’ she said defensively.
‘I’m talking about more than sustainability,’ Kya replied. ‘I’m talking about a way of living that is abundant and ecologically viable. Jedahra’s first settlers realised that the breakdown of the old system gave them an opportunity to build a new society. A place of ecological balance where everyone has equal opportunities to thrive within a thriving ecosystem.’
A fragment of poetry written in response to Brendan’s challenge – “Lets pick up their narrative set in a time fifty years forward of our current inaction”
The people of the mountain sang.
The wind keened in response.
The elders shivered then stood strong,
their drums pounding out a steady beat.
The shamans danced.
In the communications hub
the tech heads meshed the feed.
Streaming in from across the land
diverse and syncopated rhythms
found a polyphonic harmony
– the equinox ceremony, 2071
from a blog post I wrote in July 2020:-
You may not think it so but the way to Unity lies across a trackless wilderness beneath a darkening sky. Many expect the path to that fabled destination to be a wide avenue lined with roses but no – although the ways to Unity are diverse they all involve venturing into unknown terrain. Unexpected trials and tribulations can befall the traveler as they journey across that rough ground and through those vast swamps of despondency. Many get lost along the way.
Unity is not so much a city as a locality. The people live in holons – self sufficient groups that combine together to form a cohesive whole that is somehow greater than its parts. This larger grouping is known as Unity.
The guiding principle behind this system is that Earth is a living organism and that all life within the biosphere is of value. Strangely even rocks, rivers and mountains are considered to be conscious entities aware of their position in the larger environment.
Many of our children’s children’s children live in Unity. The first founders of the place drifted there after the pandemic when the global economy collapsed. They were seeking a way of life that was more in tune with nature and more accommodating of difference. Of course they knew they would have to build this place themselves.
It began with a collection of caravans, campervans and tents gathered in a remote valley many miles from the nearest city, The remoteness meant that internet connections were sporadic but slowly the word got out. People willing to work hard came from all over the world seeking a simple, peaceful way of life. What they hadn’t necessarily expected was that the hard work was on all levels – physical, emotional, mental and even spiritual. All traces of old separatist thinking had to be released so that new, holistic ways of being could assert themselves.
There are many fabulous sights, philosophies and ways of being at Unity which would take many months to tell. Perhaps the most wondrous of these is that the way to Unity was found during the pandemic. Before that solitary individuals scattered across time and space had stumbled upon the possibility that Unity might exist but it wasn’t until the 2020s that there was a collective awakening. As global conditions worsened more and more people came to see that the way towards a simpler, more ecologically balanced way of living lay within their own hearts and minds. It was these people that began to find ways to traverse the trackless wilderness that lay before them.