PART 1: THE ROOTS
PART 3: THE CROWN
On the underside of every leaf, on every plant and every tree, are mouths (stomata) powered by sunlight. These mouths suck in carbon dioxide, converting it to carbs and sugars which feed the tree through its crown, stem and root.
Without the sun’s light, no life on earth can live. As beings who eat sunlight, and beings who eat being who eats sunlight, rely on the sun’s gifts for survival.
Now, in this four-part ‘tree anthology’, with the earth as our root, human governance as our trunk, and human culture as our collective crown, the analogy for capitalism and our GDP economy would have to be a ‘thing’ equipped to eclipse the sun and its life-giving gifts.
And since capitalism’s hierarchy doesn’t fit into nature’s circularity the best analogy for this anomaly might be a mythic lad by the name of Icarus.
As many of you will remember, Icarus and his father, Daedalus were in trouble with their King. Daedalus knew he had to help his son escape, but worried about Icarus’ hubris.
Despite being unable to trust his son to make thoughtful decisions, Daedalus made Icarus a set of wax and feather wings, warning him they would melt if he flew too close to the sun.
As the story goes, Icarus did not respect the warnings offered, and the moment his wings were strapped on, he flew straight up to the sun, melting his wings and falling to his death. In the myth, for Icarus, that was it. But for capitalism, there’s a different story entirely.
For each of the 145 banking crashes and 208 monetary crises caused by our economic system since 1970, we quickly and collectively rebuilt capitalism’s wings. Making them bigger and stronger after each unique flop without so much as a scolding.
As capitalism’s wingspan grew, so did its shadow. Until each beat of its wings eclipsed the sun, dictating which beings on earth would receive its life-giving light.
Apart from a mere 1% of humans, most of the earth’s life forms were left in the dark. And when living in capitalism’s shadow began to be accepted as ‘normal’, rot began to gather and fester within.
When the sun is eclipsed (covered), by the moon or the wings of this mythic capitalism character, the light peeking out behind the shape cast over it is called a ‘corona’ (Latin for ‘crown’). The very thing the virus plaguing us now is named after (as under microscopic view, coronavirus looks like a solar eclipse).
Before the virus was named, capitalism and its GDP economy had grown such huge wings, it was taking the sun some time to melt them down. BUT, another crashing fall was always on the horizon.
As the beings who created this beast, making up the crown of our species’ tree, we have a choice to make this time around.
We can use public money (your income tax payments) to rebuild the wretched wings again – which degenerate our lives and the lives of other beings – OR, we can tear them apart, piece-by-piece, and melt them in a fire fuelled by our outrage and grief.
We can burn away what is ‘normal’ and choose instead to take inspiration from Iceland. Who, in response to the 2008 global financial crisis, jailed the bankers and politicians responsible for repairing the wings of the monster over-and-over.
Like Iceland, we can choose to let the sun shine on all, and create a regenerative system designed to uplift everyone.
Each of us are a leaf on a branch of cultural belonging and belief. For us to save the ‘tree’ of our collective species’ from rot and decay, we must come together now with unrelenting unity, and demand a truly ‘just recovery‘ globally.
PART 4: THE SEEDS
During the first stages of growth, a seedling relies on energy stored within to incubate and grow until it reaches its peak and essentially explodes into existence. It shoots down roots before sprouting up towards the light, commencing its unique role as part of the vast ecosystem of all life.
As many of you trying your hand at growing will have seen, no one seed looks the same as its neighbour, and each unique type requires different passages of time and conditions of nourishment to commence and complete its cycle from sleeping seed to green growth.
When a seed rises to the surface, it begins photosynthesising with a single green leaf, dipping its figurative toe into the world above tentatively. Slowly, it stretches and reaches higher, as it begins to bloom into whichever beautiful being it is destined to become.
This transformation from seedling to green being, offers important lessons for our human species. Especially during this remarkably strange chapter of human history. Like seedlings, each one of us is in a phase of incubation, gathering strength and energy as we search through the darkness for a light at the end of the tunnel. Trying our best to root down before we rise up.
Just like seed varieties, the length of time it might take for each of us as individuals to move from sleeping to awake will vary, depending on the type of seed we are, the conditions we’re growing in and our access to the base building blocks of life (which for too long have been out of reach for those marginalised by our systems of supremacy which block the light of life ).
The journey to becoming green from seed is unique to each being, leading us to our role in the ecosystem of change. Even if you’ve already made that journey, there are ways to branch out, spread new seeds, or pollinate others.
In the mindset of regeneration through Indigenous Ecological Knowledge, we can further expand the wisdom seeds offer. Through companion planting diverse species in the same soil, each plant encourages the other’s growth. Together they share nutrients and enhance protection, encouraging the vitality of fellow seed forms.
Whether you’re a ‘disruptor’ protesting in the streets or online, or a frontline responder and key worker, or organising community efforts, or offering your services as a caregiver personally or professionally, or building structures which give life to a collective vision, or you strengthen your community as a healer, or you amplify imagination as a storyteller, or leading thought and enhancing education , or advising others as a guide like, or growing food or making art … the list could endlessly go on. Whatever your seed’s story and gifts might be, each one of us has a role to play in implementing change and aiding growth and nourishment of other beings.
I have no doubts that with enough encouragement and time, those seeds will burst into being, at long last, shifting the paradigm.
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