WAITING
FOR THE FLASH
 by
Robin Wheeler, Owner, Edible Landscapes
At a local Forest Policy meeting last fall, several of the speakers begged
cooperation between the loggers and environmentalists for the long term benefit
of all British Columbians – and several speakers from each “side” were
in close agreement with some of the changes they wanted to see. But those
two big guys beside me, who rolled their eyes at each other every time someone
said “ecosystem”, showed there was still a big gap between the
factions. I waited for a big flash in the sky, but it didn’t happen.
Conflict between environmentalists and certain loggers will always be a problem,
because there is normally one unspoken but significant difference between
the two groups. Namely, folks of an environmental persuasion have had, at
some point in their lives, a kind of “flash”, a cosmic bang on
the head, and when they wake up, they find themselves among the millions
of living cells of that gasping, hurtling planet, earth. And they feel the
breath, and the heat of it all, and they suddenly “get it”. They
find themselves rolled in the holy glue that will now, and forevermore, interconnect
them to all other things.
Horrible self knowledge comes with this insight. For instance, after that “flash”,
people become more aware of their own part in the Big Mess (a smaller version
of the Big Bang). They start to twitch and become guilt ridden, and try to
find ways to make fewer messes themselves. They seem to become aware of the
intrinsic greed of humans, and slowly but inevitably steer towards a state
of voluntary simplicity. Poor suckers, eh?
And then they find that their expensive entertainment centres can’t
offer them one piece of knowledge that sitting still in the forest and watching
the revolutions of occurrences can’t give them. Unfortunately, sitting
still in the forest permits them to see truckloads of trees going by, faster
than they can grow back, and they know this is going on all over the planet
on a huge scale. But they can’t control that. They can only control
what is in their own back yard.
So, they sit in the forest and think, and unfortunately, they may be sitting
in front of someone who is still saving up for that entertainment centre
- someone who has not yet been flashed - someone holding a chainsaw. And
that unflashed soul is going to have no idea why these people are so hell
bent on saving one more handful of trees. So, you can see this big gap in
thinking, right?
And to make matters worse, the unflashed soul is worried about putting meat
on the table for his family, but the flashed can’t understand this
because they hardly even eat meat! And though the unflashed soul is worried
about buying new clothes for the kids, the flashed in front of him dress
themselves at the Thrift Shop.
The unflashed soul is worried because his truck is over seven years old,
but the flashed are trying to keep an old hulk on the road so they can drive
their friends around in it, and they think the logger is rich, because he
has this big, shiny truck.
And the unflashed soul is going to beg the environmentalists to worry about
his “livelihood”, and the future lack thereof, but he is not
going to remember that he doesn’t actually give a tiny hoot about the
livelihoods of those sitting in front of him, or what they eat, or what they
have chosen to live without for their big, gasping, hurtling planet. So by
now, the logger is scratching his head over this one.
Anyhow - big gap.
I think of this as I watch the cafeteria employee where I work, as she picks
up a big clump of unused paper napkins from in front of me, and, shining
a big grin in my general direction, drops them into the garbage can with
the words “My husband works in the forest industry”.
I just sit there and wait for the sky to open.
Robin Wheeler is the owner of Edible Landscaping and author of the Gardening
Book Gardening
for the Faint of Heart.
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