Talk to Trees

Wolf Moon altar, January 2014.

Is not the same as forgiveness, tolerance or being a doormat. It’s not letting people get a free pass. It’s realising that even arseholes are scared. It’s realising that the worst criminals in history still had people who loved them. It’s realising your enemy is probably just doing the best they can in a world that makes no sense. (That’s why, incidentally, they’re adherents tof toxic ideologies and practices, andrefuse to interrogate them; such things provide them with fucking security blankets. They give them a sense of agency.)

We have to be kind to each other, even if it’s thrown back in our faces. Why? Because we’re all here together, for such a terribly short time, and contrary to popular belief WE. ALL. NEED. HELP. All of Nietzsche’s talk of Monsters, and Abysses? That’s what he was saying. Fuck the syphilis story. He had a nervous breakdown when he witnessed a horse get beaten to death in the middle of the street. He signed his letters Dionysos and “the crucified one” - why?

Because he realised we are all that horse, and also the people beating it.

Please, be kind. It’s the only way anything will change permanently. Be angry, rise up all you need to, but be kind to each other as you do it.

I know it’s hard, nearly impossible in fact, but it’s the only way we’re going to survive - as a species and as you and your friends and family. I’m not inherently kind, not at all. But all the good things I ever had, and have? I got them by being kind, by letting the bullshit flow past, letting the crap of the world pass by and focusing on the importance of trying my best to help other people, as they helped me.

Call me a hippy if you want - it’s not true. I’m a grumpy bastard who really would rather be a misanthrope. Maybe I can’t be kind to everyone, but I’m going to be kind to those I can be. And if they ask me why, I tell them this: Because it’s infinitely preferable to the alternative.

Because it’s not a war, it’s a rescue mission. It’s descending into the dark to find light that you can share with others, to help them learn how to heal and be whole.  If I have to bleed to do it, if I have to pour my heart out with words of storm and fury, fire and ice and black bird’s carrion calls, so fucking be it.

And you’re going to help. You have already. So many of you have already, in small unnoticed ways, but you have and will