Thanks!

[simon field]

Just wanted to thank @The Byre for articulating so well what was revealed to me in the late 80s with the use of potent psychedelics and the unravelling of the Quality Street wrapper of consciousness ?

‘Humanity works in cycles. It does so because The planet works in cycles. Just as hot gives way to cold and summer to winter, so does humanity. The economic cycle (or boom and bust), intolerance gives way to tolerance, which in turn must give way to intolerance.

Democracy leads to chaos, chaos leads to dictatorship, dictatorship leads to chaos, chaos leads to democracy and democracy leads back to chaos.

Opportunity leads to growth. Growth leads to wealth. Wealth is built on credit. Credit is built on debt. Debt leads to poverty. Poverty breeds chaos. Chaos gives us opportunity. And round we go again!

Are we there yet?

There is no 'There' - humanity is doomed to always go around in the same old circles.

"We must embrace change!" you cry. Except that is it always change back to what we had before. That is the fate of humanity - the fate of all life.

“When tired at last, the Mole sat on the bank, while the river still chattered on to him, a babbling procession of the best stories in the world, sent from the heart of the earth to be told at last to the insatiable sea.”

 

[The Byre]

I am honoured! Thank you for the kind words. I suppose it is the perspective that comes with age - or beer - or something. It is also born of reading (and subsequently writing) reams and reams of poetry. And 'The Wind in the Willows' is really a poem. Every child should read that book at least ten times - so that, when they reach adulthood, they have the wisdom and understanding to read it again and finally understand what it is about.

We are not the first civilisation on Planet Earth and after we have destroyed nature and therefore ourselves and all that is left is a motley band of savages, scratching a living and eating bugs, we shall not be the last.

A new culture will arise after someone discovers that you can create fire by rubbing two boy scouts together and the madness will start all over again! They too will talk of modern times (and no doubt, wonder who the bloody hell built those stupid pyramids!)

I live in a part of the world that is somewhere between Narnia and Ratty's River. Toads, frogs, moles, badgers and voles and all sorts of other wildlife such as deer, kites and pine martins share our 20 acres of dreamland.

Somewhere out there is the cold hard world, what Ratty called The Wide World. It's a cruel and unforgiving place and I have been there. I even have to visit it occasionally - but what I see does not please me. Every person I meet seems to be calling for help. I see it in their eyes.

“Beyond the Wild Wood comes the Wide World,” said the Rat. “And that’s something that doesn’t matter, either to you or me. I’ve never been there, and I’m never going, nor you either, if you’ve got any sense at all.”

But time like an ever rolling stream, bears all its sons away and one day the dream will be over.

“But Mole stood still a moment, held in thought. As one wakened suddenly from a beautiful dream, who struggles to recall it, but can recapture nothing but a dim sense of the beauty in it, the beauty! Till that, too, fades away in its turn, and the dreamer bitterly accepts the hard, cold waking and all its penalties.”