This is the conclusion of my short trilogy dealing
with the Sea Gypsy Tribe in a post-Apocalyptic scenario. In order to understand it, I would encourage
you to take a few minutes and read my two prior installments entitled The
Stranger Arrives and The Shattering.
Just scroll down the page and they await you.
*******
Hello again, Stranger.
Our medical volunteers have informed me that yesterday, for the first
time since your arrival, you were able to speak. That delighted our tribe immensely. However, we were even more pleased to learn
that the first words that you uttered were “Thank you.”
I was also told that your efforts to communicate
seemed very painful. So the medical
staff asked me to discourage you from trying to speak until the wound below
your jaw has healed more completely. As
for your efforts to write with that broken right hand of yours, we again urge
you to be patient. However, your
attempts with your left hand have brought considerable amusement to all of us. One nurse describes your scribbling as a
cross between Japanese and Thai with a slight hint of Brooklyn.
*******
In a few hours our Midsummer Revelries will
begin. They might be characterized as a
sort of Renaissance Faire that “went live.”
Many of us attended such festivals during our “prior lives,” but none of
us imagined that we would one day experience them not as a make-believe entertainment
but as an authentic ritual of sharing and community.
It will begin with a ceremony called “The Winding of
the Clock.” Time is an important but
paradoxical issue for the Pelican/Slocum Sea Gypsy Tribe. On the one hand we greatly admire the way
that indigenous people ignore mathematical time and abide by the rhythms and
cycles of Nature. But as a clan of
sailors, we also value exploration and horizon quest, which requires precise
time-keeping.
When the GPS system was destroyed during The
Shattering, we suddenly became dependent on celestial navigation. Fortunately, several of us had retained this
skill, but it requires an accurate time piece in order to calculate
longitude. The captain of the beautiful
schooner in our fleet is a traditionalist, and so he uses an old U.S. Navy
chronometer that he rewinds each day at noon.
To open the festivities he stands before us and ceremoniously winds his
old navigation clock. After he has done
so, he exclaims, “Time is good, time is bad, time IS!” And then, with our best Renaissance Faire
enthusiasm, we all yell “Huzzah! Huzzah! ”
Next comes “The Great Juggle.” We deliberately position this event early in
our celebration because almost everyone in the tribe participates. One important element of our survival success
was the fact that we viewed physical fitness not as a luxury, but as a
necessity. And so we encourage juggling,
which is both excellent exercise and great fun.
It combines co-ordination, flexibility, discipline, balance, concentration
and most importantly – laughter! Almost
everyone in the tribe, who is older than a toddler, is involved and many types
of juggling are displayed. Besides the
individual skills, there are large club passing formations and great cheering
when they successfully complete a difficult sequence.
But there is no fire used during The Great
Juggle. That is saved for later in the
evening. After "The Recitation of the
Code," the young person delivering it lights a ceremonial flame that is then used
to ignite the torches of a half a dozen jugglers who enthusiastically run down
to the beach and present a dazzling routine as the drums roar and the tribe cheers
them on.
For their finale, they all dive into the water, thus
extinguishing the flames. It is a ritual
that symbolizes our reverence for the Old Ways because all four of the
essential elements are united. The Fire is dancing in the Air while the jugglers stand on the
sandy Earth and then plunge into the
Water.
Besides the planned events, there is also
spontaneity. For instance, last year
during our archery contest, someone placed a young coconut in a net bag and
suspended it from a tree. It was then
swung from side to side making a far more challenging target. Each bulls-eye was greeted with a roar of
applause and a geyser of coconut water - which did not get wasted.
There are lots of other games and simple but fine food
and drink, so just enjoy whatever catches your fancy. But again, please remember that you are still
recovering from grave injuries, so enjoy the festivities cautiously. In particular, I urge moderation when it
comes to sampling our coconut wine. As
our current Spokesperson, I have many duties today, so you might not see me
again until The Recitation of the Code.
When you hear the drumming begin near sunset, just follow the sound to
where everyone, except our lookouts, will be gathered.
*******
Welcome, my beloved brothers and sisters of the
Pelican/Slocum Sea Gypsy Tribe to this year’s finale of our Midsummer
Revelries. Our first obligation – and joy
– is to welcome the newborn to our tribe.
And this year, for the first time, we are celebrating the birth of
twins! Cindy and Ricardo, please stand
up and hoist high those beautiful babies.
Ah ha, I see you have bundled them in our tribal colors of blue and
green. Bravo!!! I believe I speak for all of us when I say
that we were both delighted and amused by the names you chose for your new sons. And so, let us have a roar of applause as we
formally welcome Aldous and George to our Pel/Slo family.
As we do the Pass Around of the new babies, I will
take this opportunity to formally salute the Stranger who unexpectedly joined
us a few weeks ago. Even though we know
so little about him that we don’t even know his name, we certainly admire his
fortitude for just surviving the injuries that he sustained and the emotional
trauma that must have accompanied them.
We look forward to his day of healing when he can share with us his name,
his story and his news of the other world.
As is our custom with significant events, I have composed a haiku to
mark the occasion:
A stranger arrives –
wounded and mute, he speaks with
the language of eyes.
And now it is time to introduce the lovely young woman
who will be delivering this year’s Recitation of the Code. Because we all bore witness to how swiftly
the tools for preserving knowledge vaporized, we recognize the importance of verbally
conserving our tribal wisdom. So each
year as the climax of our Midsummer Revelries, one of our young people recites
our Code which they have memorized. This
event is also a rite of passage for that individual in which they reveal their
newly chosen name. In their early teens,
each of our youngsters gets to select a tribal name to complement their family
name. Melinda, who is our honoree and
speaker this evening, is also noted for her excellence in celestial
navigation. We have 5 adults who have
mastered this skill, but she is the only teen that has done so. Therefore it is fitting that as her tribal
name she has chosen … drum roll, please … Melinda Starpath.
Ah ha, I can see that the old hippies amongst us seem
to be applauding this choice with particular enthusiasm. Perhaps that is because you recall those days
from the 60s and 70s when you christened so many of your children with names
like Moonbeam and Dragonfly.
Melinda, I realize that you are probably a little bit
nervous, but please be at ease. Most of
us already know the Code; so you do not have to recite it perfectly. I am sure you will deliver it magnificently –
just enjoy the process and this wondrous occasion.
*******
Dear brothers and sisters of the Pelican/Slocum Sea Gypsy Tribe, I stand before you to speak words that most of us already know by heart. But even though they are not new, we treasure them - because they are a statement of our Core Wisdom.
The horrors
of The Shattering proved that humanity made some dreadful wrong turns along the
road of history. The worst of these was
when they stopped perceiving themselves as members of the living kingdom and
started viewing themselves as separate and superior beings. They arrogantly believed that they should
have dominion over all other life and even over the entire biosphere. In their toxic pride they believed that they
need not abide by the Laws of Nature and could even transcend them. Instead of recognizing that they were a
strand in the web of life they proclaimed that life was a pyramid with humanity
at the pinnacle. Such foolish
omnipotence led to the wasteland of death and desolation that now shrouds so
much of our planet.
At its
inception, our tribe established three core directives, which are to Survive to Thrive and to Strive. And what we strive for is a new vision of
humanity which will not repeat the mistakes of our predecessors. We realize that there are probably other pockets
of human survivors scattered about our smoldering planet, who will try to
resurrect a living arrangement similar to what prevailed just before The
Descent and The Shattering. We believe
this is a serious and suicidal mistake. Therefore we have codified principles
that we believe will avoid such a fate.
These are those core values. This is our Code:
Amazement is the foundation of our worldview. Look to the West at the amber glory of the sunset. Cast your eyes on the turquoise waters beside us. Look heavenward in another hour at the billions of stars. They are even more desolate and destroyed than our wounded planet. So we must rejoice that at least there is still Life amidst the ruin. And if we behave wisely, our grandchildren’s grandchildren may once again witness abundance.
Hierarchal societies become horrible societies. Tribal societies are small bands where
everyone knows each other and they work together for the benefit of the
clan. There are no rulers and ruled, no
rich and poor, no inequality between the sexes, no chiefs living in splendor
while everyone else lives in squalor.
But hierarchal societies suffer from all of these injustices. And despite the false propaganda, those who
rise to power in such systems are not “the best and the brightest.” In fact, they are the most ambitious,
ruthless and despicable. They create
dominator cultures that hurl death and destruction across the planet. Hierarchies should be as dreaded as the
mushroom cloud!
Churches and States must remain buried in the
ashes. The most
obscene atrocities in human history have usually been committed in the name of
the love of god or the love of country.
Striving for spiritual or pantheistic joy is admirable, but organized
religions that demonize others and demand their annihilation should never
re-emerge from the wreckage and fall-out.
As for
States, humanity existed for hundreds of thousands of years without them. And now as we struggle to survive on a
scorched planet, we can point to governments as the cause for the obscene
murder of billions of innocents. May the
grotesque spell of churches and states never hypnotize us again!
Capitalism must capsize. It should have been obvious that any
system that places profits ahead of the people and the planet would be
disastrous for both. An economic model
that worships greed cannot possibly serve the common interest or the greater
good. The tribal model has provided a
template that allowed people to live fulfilling lives without harming each
other or the environment. Capitalism deserves the casket!
Cities, speed and stuff are curses and not cures. Urban sprawl, a pace of life at
hyper-speed and people being possessed by their possessions, were all symptoms
of late-stage Civilization. Our sea
gypsy tribe believes that life should be lived no faster than Nature suggests. The fastest horse and the swiftest sailing
boat are organic guidelines that insure happier people and a safer planet. Without humanity’s worship of speed, there
could have been no missiles to deliver the death.
*******
This
concludes The Recitation of the Code. For
my final duty, I will joyously light this ceremonial flame that symbolizes our
tribe’s ferocious determination to Survive, Thrive and Strive. And now arise fire jugglers – ignite your
torches and remind us once again that Life is Amazing and Life is Precious!