h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Willem's recent messages, relayed by his parents, indicate that he is feeling a bit better but that he is still seeing little reason go on.

He has always held the greatest respect for nature without separating humanity from all the rest of the things that go together to make up this world. The recent attacks in New York and Washington DC, seemed to have dealt Willem a blow that coupled with the general uneven state of affairs in the world have gone a long way to deny him the vision of tomorrow that was and will be again one of his most beautiful and hopeful characteristics.

During those hours when we were desperately trying to find a way to show Willem that there were things that justified having hope for the immediate and long term future.

In the past I have tried to help him focus his creative energy and vision in directions of action. Willem has the keenest desire to write great things so I now suggest that you take a few moments to think about things of beauty and promise in this world that have been or are being threatened by the conditions in the world today. Things that you personally would hate to see gone forever along with suggestions as to how action might be taken to protect them. Practical solutions are fine but there is no need to limit yourselves. The most faciful suggestion may well hold the key to a new approach to the world or may simply spur a reaction from someone else that you had overlooked.

In this way I hope that we can all begin to do what Willem had felt that we must do, find a way to solve every problem by remembering that each of us stands next to another in an endless and timeless chain that encompasses all that there is or can be. Nothing exists independently of anything else though we may have forgotten for the moment that we all stand on the same planet, drink the same water, and breathe the same air.

Even though the world is currently facing another time of trial, there is never a time to stop dreaming.

Barton

As a first contribution, let me offer the problem of the forests.

The human race may have been born in the forests. I can testify, personally, that when I wander through an ancient forest, I feel that I am in touch with one of the original sources of wonder in the world.

It is not the kind of wonder that makes me feel small, like standing at the bottom of the Grand Canyon and gazing up at the edges of the cliffs from the river at its bottom.

It is not the kind of wonder that puts me in awe of the power of human determination such as comes standing on the Hoover Dam with a vast min-made lake to one side and the aching emptyness of an ancient river valley on the other.

It is not the kind of wonder of scale that comes to me when I stand on the ocean beach and see the far off hoizon with no trace of land to break its perfect line, perhaps with the tiny dim silhouette of a great ocean liner made into a tiny smoking bead as it trys to catch up to the world rolling away from it far faster than it can hope to go.

The forest brings me the wonder of rightness and a sense of being in a proper place. Science tells us that the air truly is better in the dimmed light beneath a canopy of leaves.

At night in particular, I like to wander off a ways from my campsite to gaze up at the few stars that can be seen slipping past the over-arching branches thirty, forty, or more feet above my head teaching me again where the inspiration for vast cathedral halls came from.

Is not a shame then, that the places where we can experience this particular sense of wonder are being systematically stolen from us, such that we must make pilgrimages to the few remaining such spots set aside so grudgingly for the posterity of all.

I remember one particular poignant cartoon by R. Cobb in the sixties that showed the bleak concrete landsape of a large city. A tired, wrinkled, and very old man sits on a bench beneath an open, merciless sky staring in obvious rapture at a single weed that has managed to push its way up through a crack in the sidewalk.

Cobb had plainly stood in a forest and looked upward with awe. If you have not done so, I suggest you do it soon, while you still can.

The solution is not to scream and shout for the cutting of trees to be ended. The people really do need the trees or the ground they stand on. Some times the reasons do not compel us as they did the takers, but the need was there, for the most part.

The solution is a simple one and well within our power to achieve it. Whenever we have the time and the opportunity, plant a tree where it may be permitted to grow long, tall, and old. Take the time to water it well and see to it's protection. Then when the chance comes again, plant another.

Look around you, often the trees had to go to make way for the machinery that was needed to build your homes. The machines are gone now. Plant a tree or two or three.

Get creative, plant different kinds of trees. Get interested, plant the trees that will do well despite the odds. Get involved, take seedlings and tools with you when you go somewhere. Plant a tree there. Stay busy with that when you have no other reason to be busy.

Plant a tree.

Barton

Well said Barton. I will think about it and post later.

x x Fenny (Hoping for Zero Intolerance)

Funnily enough, Barton, as I read your first post, I was thinking about trees, and who hears them when they fall.

One of the most important things we can do for the planet, as well as for ourselves, is simply notice things.

I notice the warmth of the sun on my foot, the colour of light in the garden, the smell of the earth after this morning's wonderous rain. More mundanely, I also notice the feel of tortilla chips in my stomach, the taste of thirst in my throat, the sound of the keys as I type, the sounds of my neighbour talking in the garden next door.

I will think more about what you have said about the future, but in the meantime, I try to witness, to notice things.

a girl called Ben

Barton, Ben, and other posters - would you agree to have this thread turned into an Entry? It seems too valuable to let it be lost in the backlog of 'more conversations'. If so, the Willem Love Collective will lift the Postings in their entirety and move them to Entry status.

x x Fenny (hoping for Zero Intolerance)

So here I am, to eradicate Zero Intolerance in thrumpty-three words.

Racism: the evil of modern times. But how easy is it to change?

A smile begets a smile; a frown begets a frown. There is an argument that one smile, aimed at one person, first thing in the day, will cause more smiles from the recipient of your first smile. So if you smile at one person, just after breakfast, your recipient will remember, subconsciously, and smile at, say, ten. Those ten people, smiled at between breakfast and elevenses, will smile at ten people each, or one hundred. During their lunch break, one hundred people will each pass the smile on to another ten people, resulting in more than one thousand happy smiling people by early afternoon. A smile is contagious.

A smile is contagious. Four words so obvious that few recognise their truth. Four words that hide the secret of peace. Next time you're stuck in a crowd, and someone tries to push past you, try smiling. Chances are that you and your recipient will share something special - a moment of calm despite the crush. Next time you're on a bus and some of the passengers are being noisy, try raising a smile with them. It may reduce the noise, the irritation factor, and everyone else will smile with you.

These simple exercises apply to all classes, colours and creeds. A smile is a smile, no matter the age of the recipient. Perhaps, sometime someone may smile at you. If you're watching for smiles, you may become a recipient.

x x Fenny

x x Fenny (Zero Intolerance)

Just to let you know that this is now an entry. Please feel free to add to it - leave a message here, or in the thread hanging off the Futures Entry!

x x Fenny (hoping for Zero Intolerance)

There is plenty to justify hope in the world.

There is much in the world of great beauty and promise. Trees - massive machines eating light and making beautiful structures and ecosystems. I know Willem has a 'thing' for trees, I'm more of a flower gal myself (isn't diversity great too )

Within humanity there is greatness and terror, that seems to me to be a fundamental part of the human condition. Yet I also beleive that to a large extent we shape our own destinies and can collectivley create a happier future by taking care with our actions, by learning and understanding change and how to shape changes, by connecting our consciences and collectivising our consiousness.

"We all stand together in an endless, timeless chain" Myself, I see that more as a web than a chain, and I imagine that the more tightly we weave that web the more we will understand the underlying inter-connectedness of life the universe and everything. Of course its simplistic to say that we should all just love each other and live in peace, but its also true.

There *is* never a time to stop dreaming. Except when you're awake. Make dreams come true. Love Life.



pj

*smiles*

Hi PJ

Your contribution is noted, and will be added. Or you could add it youself!

x x Fenny (hoping for Zero Intolerance and praying for Peace)

Hey all!!! I say - plant trees! Hundreds! Thousands! Millions! Learn about trees - which species live in your country and region, which ones are rare and endangered and so on! I will tell you more about trees soon! And Jenny - you know, most trees over here in South Africa also bear pretty flowers! But I also like smaller plants ... very often they are also dependent on trees for the right micro-habitats to live in!

Hey Willie

We need acres of imagery, flowing texts to make the oasis bloom. Hopefully with you back, it will come more to life, and will be truly a place for people to relax. I'm looking forward to gardening and tending (sadly, something I've left for a few days - been busy).

Everyone, write lots!

x x Fenny (hoping and praying for Zero Intolerance)

Righty-ho, Fenny! In a while I will see what I can pull off! Meanwhile I will read a bit more over here!

I guess you can tell that I did manage to find this place! I still haven't contributed much, though! Just want to survey the scenery a bit first.

Hey PJ your text is on the Futures page. Sorry it took so long!

x x Fenny (ZI)

i took pictures of our school mascot, tommy trojan today. people had put candles and flowers all around him, and wrote things in chalk on the brick floor... all things for the people in NY and DC who were affected by the tragedy.

it warmed my heart to see the famous anne frank quote on those bricks, "after all this, i still believe that, deep down, people are good."

there is great beauty in the world. every now and then it is eclipsed by the ugliness, but even when the world is in its darkest hours, the beauty is still there, hiding in the shadows. you just have to be able to find it.

Give me a few minutes, and I'll put you in!

x x Fenny for WLCollective

thanks, fenny. no rush.