fire-in-the-commons-script file · web viewa large spacious room with moveable chairs...

Draft Script – “Fire in the Commons” – Gray Cox 2/11/17

DRAFT Script

“Fire in the Commons”

by Gray [email protected], #207-460-1163

All words and music shared under a Creative Commons License -- 2017

Setting: A large spacious room with moveable chairs organized in a horsehoe around

a staging area for the campfire in the front. Other props may be supplied or improvised as needed from materials or by having cast or audience members use their bodies to make shapes and appropriate sounds. There are some placards, signs and flip chart sheets around on the walls from various workshops and protest trainings.

Characters:

Art, a camp counselorSister Satya, a spiritual retreat workshop leader and activistRobyn, a camp counselorBones Freeman, an activist and nonviolence trainerJamie, the KidBrother John, the Preacher, Pete, the Seeker, a folk musicianElise Boulder, the professorArco Iris, a Latina community organizerAllan O’Dale, a park ranger and troubadour. Various audience members who are campers or previous workshop participants and know the songs and help initiate participation and make sure there are volunteers when needed.

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mailto:[email protected]


(The performance opens as one of the camp counselors, Art, walks to the center and blows a conch shell three times. He lets the sound resonate and echo as silence falls. Then he rings a little bell three times – a Buddhist meditation bell.)

Art: Welcome!I'd like to welcome you all to the Commons and the campfire we're going to have

here tonight. We will be doing a whole lot of story telling and singing and some serious joking around. If you get hungry, there’s snacks over by the way and if nature calls the outhouses are up yonder.

We are all here because we are concerned about this camp we have come to know and love and share and the forest in which it sits – and the larger commons . . . the land and waters and sky that support us and give us the water we drink, the air we breath and the many, many cultures that we all share.

We're here to raise our spirits and raise some money and raise a vision of vision of the future.

This is a low budget operation so we're going to have to ask you all to help us provide some of the props and visions of the setting with your imagination. For starters, please imagine a beautiful forest stretching out all around us -- and a gorgeous sky above with the sun just setting in the west there and some stars starting to come out . . .

Fortunately we have a real fire which I will light up in a moment to officially begin this campfire here at the Commons.

We could use some birds though . . . (makes a few bird calls as he looks to audience to provide some more and waits till they do to proceed)

While I am lighting the fire I would like to invite sister Satya to come up and sing an opening song.

(Sister Satya comes to center while Art starts to light the fire.)

Sister Satya:

We've all been so busy busy busy but now we're here together and since we will be spending this time together it would be good to gather ourselves.

To gather in our shared presence. Thich Nhat Hahn recommends starting with three deep breath's. Let's try that.

(She invites the audience to accompany her as she takes three long, slow, deep breaths. Then she sings.)

I’m Gonna Slow Right Down(available at: https://graycox.bandcamp.com/track/im-gonna-slow-right-down)

I’m gonna slow right down So I can get there sooner. I’m gonna slow right down So I can get there today.

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I’m gonna slow right down, Maybe even come to a full stop. Maybe if I come to a full stop I’m gonna get there right away.

(Sister Satya turns the center back to Art.)

Art: Now I’d like to invite you all to join in the traditional song here that we sing at the

camp whenever we light up the fire. It’s there in your songbooks as number 1.

(He leads this song with a guitar and harmonica.)

Smile and I'll be there (available to listen at: https://graycox.bandcamp.com/track/smile-and-ill-be-there)

When the sun has set like a memory, and the fire has lit up like a flare, In the warmth and the laughter and the melodies, smile and I'll be there. Smile and I'll be there again, smile and I'll be there. In the warmth and the laughter and the melodies, smile and I'll be there.

La de da da da da da da da da da la de da da da da da da da la de da da da da da da da da da la da da da da

You and I are smiling now, it's a smile that we always will share. In the warmth and the laughter and the melodies, smile and we'll always be there. REPEAT

(A second camp counsellor, Robin, walks to center.)

Robin:Yes, “smile and I’ll be there!” Of course we are hoping this camp will be here for

a long time in the future and there will be many more generations of kids – and adults -- coming to it to learn and share and smile and build community here at the Commons. But our budget has been challenged of late – and we don’t have any federal funding (smiles) and, in fact, it looks like more and more things the federal government has funded in the past won’t get funded themselves unless we all start pitching in. So we decided to have

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some fundraisers. Some events like this that are each a kind of “love-athon”. We are inviting people to think about sharing the money they would normally spend on some printed card or boxed candy or present that they might be giving to a loved one for Valentines Day or an anniversary or a birthday or Christmas or the like. And share a part or the whole of it with the Camp here at the Commons – or share it with some other part of this planet of plants and animals and people we love in common.

As part of expanding our budget base, I am really delighted to say we also decided to continue our work to expand the community of folks who come here and share in the use of the camp. We have been working to get not just more folks but more kinds of folks coming here to help kids learn about nature or provide a place for adults to build community or to give activists and other folks to do trainings or what have you. As you all know, we were started by one particular Christian denomination but over the years we kept singing these songs that got us thinking more broadly – “Black and yellow, red and white, they are precious in his sight . . . Jesus loves the little children of the world.”

Working with different folks has been exciting – and challenging sometimes. It can be hard to follow the Golden Rule “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” And at times we have had to adapt – in the way we cook food or use pronouns when we talk about the divine. In fact, we have even adapted so now we try to follow the Rainbow Rule: Do unto others as they would have you do unto them. It’s not just about learning to love our neighbours as ourselves, its about learning to love our enemies – which can be hard sometimes when they like the Yankees . . . or the Falcons . . . (laughs) or the Red Sox or the Patriots or whoever . . .

Early on here we all learned a song I’d like to share with you now. It is number two in the song book.

(Leads song with guitar. It is a sing a long in which after the first three verses, people from the audience may start to suggest the key word.)

Smilin’ All the Time

Robin: It can take a while to learn how to smile all the time . . . it can be hard to do.

Especially with all the troubles going on in this world. And smilin’ is not enough. We have to do things – act. One of the things we have been really heartened by in recent years is our work with activists who have come to the Camp here to do trainings and get people really fired up. A couple of the most rambunctious and radical of them are here tonight, Brother John and Jack Freeman – or, as we like to call him for reasons you’ll see soon, “Bones”. John and Jack, come on up!

(Robin applaunds as both walk to center.)

Brother John: Thanks! It’s always a pleasure to be here. One thing I especially like is the

chance to sing those old Gospel songs kids always used to learn when they came here. You know, the ones like “This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine.” And “woke up this mornin’ with my mind and it was set on Jesus . . . “ or “set on love”. Out

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there in the street at rallies and in marches and nonviolent actions those songs can be so inspiring – and adapted to the occasion . . . “More power than the Pentagon, I’m gonna let it shine . . .” and “Woke up this mornin’ with my mind and it was set on freedom.”

There’s a song about how in times of trouble we should “Hold on because the Lord is comin’, hold on, because the Lord is comin’, hold on because the lord is comin’, he’s comin’ to take his people home. Home!”

Lately, I wake up in the morning and read the news and things sometimes look pretty bleak. But then I get in touch with some of my more activist friends and all they are doing and I just have to bust out singing:

(sings along with Bones who adds a strong alternate melody/harmony line in a freely improvised Spiritual style.)

Hold On Because a Change is Comin’(available at: https://graycox.bandcamp.com/track/hold-on)

Hold on because a change is Comin’! Hold on because a change is Comin’! Hold on because a change is Comin’! We’re makin’ a change right here at home! Hooooooommmmme!

Let’s get goin’, well there’s no need to wait! [3x] Because we’re makin’ a change right here at home!

Hommmmmme!And if we’re goin’ together then we’re gathered in love! [3x]

Because we’re makin’ a change right here at home! Hommmmmme!

Bones:

But what kind of change is comin’? Not just for us as individuals, but as a system . . . not just for our own little camp fire but for the forest and the seas and sky and all the commons . . .

I am gonna get these bones out and sing another song with you that got written to commemorate Columbus Day. Notice I did not say celebrate. Columbus came to discover people who already knew they were there. And he, like a lot of conquerors, came with a “charter” from the Kings and Queens back home that they thought entitled them to lay claim to the people and places and things they encountered who thought they already held themselves in common. And this is still going on today. Companies with charters are laying claim and trying to privatize all kinds of commons like the waters in our aquifers and the air in our sky and the culture of our different traditions and even the human genome that we share. It is very appropriate to sing these with the bones, which some people say were the first instrument. Back when the whole world was a commons and folks went out in

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parties to hunt and then came back to celebrate success around a fire in the cave, they’d tell stories about the hunt.

(Bones begins to act out a guttural story in a brief dance imitating a hunt.)

And then there would be some old bones lying around and they might pick them up to add a beat to the story . . .

(He begins to use bones in telling story.)

This song asks a question. It’s called “Who Owns the Future?” At some level, the answer should be obvious, right? It’s children. Because eventually, in the future, they are the only ones who are going to be around.

I want to invite you to help me with the chorus – which is a kind of paleo thing that’s pretty easy to pick up. “Heyyyyyyyyyy! Hey! Hey! Hey! Heyyyyyyyyyy! Heyyyyyyyyyy! Hey! Hey! Hey! Heyyyyyyyyyy!”

(Bones leads the song with bones accompaniment.)

Who Owns the Future?(available at: https://breathonthewater.com/2017/02/25/who-owns-the-future/)

Heyyyyyyyyyyyy! Hey! Hey! Heyyyyyyyyyyyyyy! [2x]

A company with a charterfinds a person, place, or thing

and they pay protection money to put it on a registry

and they call it a discoverywhose profits go to them

unmolested by competitors who collude in this property system

while the people, places, things and spiritswho had found themselves long before

go misnamed, unrecognized and stolen.


If you get a word wrong on a welfare formyour rights can be denied.

If you fail to heed a warningthe police can shoot to take your life.

If an addicted kid steals a pack of cigaretteshe can be sent to Juvenile.

But for a company that is big enough to commit an enormous crime

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– to addict a generation or commit cultural genocide --there are many ways it can make it pay

for the police and state to take its side.


They can pass and enforce the needed laws that give ownership to thieves

and leave the people, places, things and spirits stolen, without appeal,

assigning a statutory right that gives powers to the strong

and leaves the victims of their crimesin violation of the law.


But there’s always the appeal to the power of the mindand the power of the people to stand up and deny

the crazy fictions would be tyrants use to intimidate-- those crazy lies they use to tie violent threat to authority.

And there's the appeal to hope and the appeal to loveand the appeal to folks around us and when push comes to shovewe can speak united truth to the lonely power of the gunand insist on changing the rules that are wrong in this new millennium.


Rule number one is simple: Every child owns the things she or he needs to thrive -- food, shelter, clothing,

education, health care, a family free of violence, an environment secure.And the second rule is just as basic:

Any person, policy or institution that stands in the way of keeping the first rule has to be changed.


Bones: Well I think it’s time for old codgers like me to step aside and let young

people start doing some leading. Have we got anybody here who wants to take a turn leading the Campfire? How about somebody who is still short enough for me to lift on my shoulders?

(Jamie, The Kid, who is sitting near the front, waves his or her hand wildly.)

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Bones: What have you got?

Jamie, The Kid: This is a song and a dance and first I do it and then all the rest of you join in. Here’s the dance – and you should excuse me if I turn my back to you because

I know I am not sposed to turn my back to the audience but this makes it easier to see how to do the dance ok?

(Jamie dances to the tune as she/he gives the instructions for the steps.)Left, right, left, hop.Right, left. right, hop.Left, right, left, hop.Right, left. right, hop.Left, right, left, hop.Right, left. right, hop.Left, right, left, hop.Right, left. right, hop

Now here’s the words to the song: “One citizen went out to try to find a place to occupy. He had such Enormous funHe asked one more citizen to come.”

Ok. So now you help me sing the song and I will dance it. “One citizen went out to try to find a place to occupy. He had such Enormous funHe asked one more citizen to come.”

(She/he then invites one other person from the audience to sing and dance in a kind of conga line. This time they sing “Two citizens went out . . .”)

Jamie: Now you go out and get someone.

(The Kid and the other dancer each get another to join the conga line for the song and dance. This is repeated till everyone who is willing to take part is in the dance as the words change to “Four” then “Eight” then “Sixteen” and so on till “Lots of citizens . . . On the last time round, they repeat the song at faster paces till they are worn out.

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The kid has gotten them to weave around the audience and through it for the earlier versions but on the last one they end in a large circle. )

Art: Ok! Ok! What a great job! Thank you so much for leading that!! Let’s give a big

hand for Jamie!!! And for the 2, 4 8 and 16 other people who all helped lead that occupation!!!!

Now it’s time for our nightly “Lesson of the Evening”. And tonight we are really lucky because a very special professor is here to give the talk. She has been working for decades to help create a culture of peace for girls and boys and women and men and everyone in between and beyond, all around the world. And she has been a regular at our camp here doing futures workshops on Imaging a World Without Weapons. We like to think of her as our Travel Agent for Vacations in the Future. She is also a very centered spirit who is as solid as the rock she is named after. Please welcome Elise Boulder!!! (Elise comes to the center and someone helping brings an easel with a white board or flip chart. She has on a hat that says “Quaker”.)

Elise: Thank you Art. And thank you again Jamie for leading us in that ver

wonderful dance. I think tonight when I sleep I am going to be laying there dreaming with my legs going “left, right, left, hop” . . . maybe I will even snore a little bit to the melody!

Tonight I want to talk about love and peace. And where we our in our culture today and where we want to go – and maybe even make a little imaginary trip there, into the future. We live in a culture of conflict that hides peace from us, but there is a different culture that is possible in the future in which we can make love the basic stuff of our daily life and make peaceful action the structure of our world.

You know a culture is a way of seeing things and doing things. Some years ago a number of us began to realize that in our culture, peace is obscured. In the mainstream, at least, we don’t know what it is. We normally define it in terms of what it is not – not violent, not war, not conflict. We don’t say what it is. And something else very strange in our grammar. In English we can say “nations are warring in the Middle East” but we can’t say that “nations are peaceing in Scandinavia”. Why do we have this negative, static idea of peace as an absence?

The key to this is that the way we look at things is centered on conflict. We see the economy as a conflict – people competing for scarce resources. In courts we see justice as a conflict between the Prosecution and the Defense, fighting with their words to win. It’s better than dueling with pistols I suppose, but it’s the same kind of game. We see ourselves as split between reason and emotion, fighting within ourselves. And we see rationality itself as a matter of fighting, as a kind of war where in “critical reasoning” people attack other’s “positions” and try to defend their own by marshaling evidence the way generals marshal armies.

The result is that we see conflict as essential to life, as essential as hydrogen is to water. (She writes on the board: Water = H2O. Then she holds up a water

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bottle.) You can only have water if you have hydrogen. If I wanted to take all the hydrogen out of this bottle, I would have to take out all the water. In the same way, in our culture, we are taught to see conflict as essential to life. (She writes on the board: Life = C2O.) It’s as though we think life is two parts conflict and one part Oxygen. But so if you want to reduce the amount of conflict in the world, you have to reduce the amount of life. And we talk this way when we say how “lively” Washington D C is right now because there is so much conflict there. And we say if you want a more tranquil, peaceful way of life you need to leave the big cities and go to some quiet place in the country where there is not so much going on, (she starts to yawn with exaggeration) so much conflict – to some sleepy little town . . . and if you want complete peace then you should go the cemetery there were, as we say, “the dead rest in peace.”

If conflict is essential to life, and peace is at least the reduction or elimination of conflict, then, once we reduce all the conflict and get rid of it, we get rid of life . . . and there is nothing left over for peace to be.

We see life the way a sociology professor I once had from Germany put it. (Puts on a thick, guttural German accent. She draws a simply image of an island with a coconut tree, one coconut and two islanders beneath it.) He once told me: “This is life. Two islanders, one coconut, they both want it. A simple production system with conflict over the joint product. Everything else – economics, politics, religion, culture, military – it’s all just adding extra islanders and extra kinds of coconuts to fight over.”

So I said to him. “I don’t ‘know. It might depend on why they want the coconut. Maybe one wants it to eat the meat inside and the other wants to clean out the shell to use it as a cup to drink. Then they don’t have a conflict. They just share a common problem – how to best separate the meat from the shell.”

(in German voice) “Yes, yes, yes, well maybe in some unusual cases there are interest convergencies that yield behavioral anomalies BUT suppose they each want the whole coconut!”

(her voice) “Well still it depends on why they want it. Maybe they each want to grow a new tree, in which case, again, they just share a common problem – find the best place to plant it.”

(in a profoundly agitated German voice) “Yes, yes, yes, well but suppose they each want the whole coconut just for themselves, never mind why. Maybe they want to swallow it whole or burn it or use it in some ritual sacrifice – but they each want the whole coconut just for themselves. That is life! That is the essence of life! Conflict!!”

(pausing thoughtfully and then replying) “I don’t know. It still seems like you could look at it as just a shared problem.”

(exasperated German) “Really!!!!???? And what is this ‘shared common problem’?”

(replying calmly) “Not enough coconuts.”Ever since then I have thought that conflict is just one way of looking at

things. There are others. And I came to see this metaphor of the two island warriors as a very limited – and very traditional, patriarchal – way of looking at life.

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Here’s another metaphor. Consider a woman giving birth. There’s her, the baby, maybe a midwife or other helpers. There’s lots of pain and struggle. It is about the most basic issues of personal identity and bodily integrity. There is danger and there can even be death. But there is no conflict. The woman is not saying to the baby “I’m gonna beat you, you little loser.” She and the baby and the midwife are all cooperating to give birth, to give life. And they all get transformed in the process. The woman becomes a mother and the baby becomes the child of family and friends that welcome him into their community along with all the transformations him brings.

This is another way of looking at life. As giving birth to new individuals and communities. And when we are having problems with the kids in our bunkhouse or the neighbors in our town we can look at it as a process of giving birth to a new community of friends or citizens . . . Life as constantly being born again, born anew, and giving birth to a renewed community.

There are many possible futures for us all. Tonight I want to take you all on a trip to one where we will have a culture of life, a culture where we share problems in common and give birth to a wonderful beloved community.

I want to ask you all to help me make a time machine so we can travel to that future some thirty years from now. It may seem far off. It is far off enough to change the world in really dramatic ways. But it is a future we can touch. Most of you will still alive in thirty years. Some will just be retiring others, others will be at the peak of you careers. Some will just be starting to have children of your own. The world we are going to visit is onefree of war and the threat of war in societies with equity and justice for all.in communities where every person's potential may be fulfilled. and where we live on an earth restored.

So to get there, we need to make some noise. We need to make a time storm!!! I am going to travel around this room and each time I walk by you, just start making the noise I am making. Ok? Ready? Let’s start with some silence. (a pause for perhaps a half a minute while everyone starts to center down. Then she walks around the room in a circle making a series of sounds that imitate the coming of a storm and its crescendo and then the diminishing of sound back to a silence with deep full breaths.)

Elise: Welcome to the future!

(The placards and signs on the wall and the flip chart sheets have been reversed or replaced and all have different messages celebrating 5 years of this and 10 years of that such and so for all . . . )

Bones: Yes! Yes! Yes! This is fantastic! It’s just like in the old Song Book #6!

(Bones and Brother John leads everyone in singing verses to the tune of “Hold ON” at #6.)

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If we’re gathered in love then we’re already there . . .If we’re already there then sing Happy Day . . .Happy Day, Happy Day . . . Freedom and justice for all for real . . Health and food and shelter are human rights . . .

*********

[ADDITIONAL MATERIAL TO BE INSERTED HERE:This is a world where people judge the success of their own lives not by the

quantity of their consumption but the by the content of their character. This is reflected in news stories that appear. There are multiple large frames like TV screens and inside them people are reporting on the world news as they walk on and off center stage. One sad thing happens – turns out it was switched to the history channel. World police arrested the last dictator, surrounding his house . . . soldier’s stepped aside – interviewed – . . .)

******

Elise (looking around off into the distance as if surveying all of the world):Yes! This is marvelous! . . . But I am so curious – how did we get here? Perhaps different folks could tell some stories . . .

Brother John: I’ll tell you how! I won’t tell you the whole story cause that would take a

whole lot of time but I’ll tell you one very, very good part. It was the part about how right here at our very own Camp we reached out to all the little children and got them goin’ in a good direction. One thing we did and maybe it was one of the best, was we got Blackbird to come. Let me tell you how it happened – When Blackbird Came In!!!!! (Brother John recites the following poem in the style of Ashley Bryan.)

[a recording of this is available at:

Blackbird came in. He was full of color Like a huge bowl full of M&Ms Brimming over beneath a rainspoutThat was catching all the brilliant candies pouring down -- pouring down in a shower of unending bounty from the Goddess of Joy and Delightwho was splashing rainbows of excitement over every single one of us! Blackbird said “Repeat after me!” And then sang out loud as could be: “My People are a Beautiful People!” And suddenly we were all singing:

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“My People are a Beautiful People!” “My People are a Beautiful People!”And all the colors of all our feathers were touched and trembling with his inky black ,And then we all sparkled like rainbows Carved into a wooden block by a divinely inspired hand,And that Blackbird, he was that hand, Swirling in a dance as he lifted up his wings, circling into the sky,To brush the tips of his wings around the edge of the SunAnd brush the tips of his wings around the cotton of the CloudsAnd brush the tips of his wings around the edge of the Moon-- and he brushed his feathered back all over the Night that was coming into the Sky And it made the Stars sparkle twinkle beam like the Eyes of Gods piercing through sea glass on a beach that stretched out into the endless Ocean of the Night -- that Ocean of Night that was so full of color and so full of lightBecause it was as Black and Beautiful as the Universe at its very beginning when It was just a Baby about to Burst into Life.

And we all wanted to be born like that!And grow up to be children just like that! -- Be Children Bursting with Life like Blackbird!!And all we could think was: “Slap our Bottoms and Let’s Get Going!!!!

(John bows and pulls to the side as Bones jumps up.)

Bones: Yes indeedy! Slap my bottom!! That’s part of how we got here. And we slapped a whole lot of bottoms, not just our own. So to speak. (laughs) Nonviolent direct action! That’s another way we got here! Civil disobedience! Boycotts! Walk outs! Sit ins! Eat ins! Pray ins! Marching! Getting in the way of the Machines of Power! And Going our Own Way to Empower Ourselves! The Power of the People to refuse to obey unjust laws – to just refuse! And to do something different instead! To set up our own courts, and schools, and local security, and peacekeepers! Sister Cities and Peace Brigades International – we started our own foreign policy!

People used to think nonviolence was just a weapon of the weak, for people who couldn’t get their hands on guns. But the People taught them different! They called class into session and they took a roll call.

(looking down at a roll call on a clip board)Ok class. I am glad to see you all here today. (checking off names.) But who

can tell me where is the brutal colonial government that ruled India in Gandhi’s day? (here and for each repetition that follows listing someone absent, a cast

member, as a Camp staff person/member of the “Class”, holds up an empty chair so everyone can see it.)

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Class: Absent!!

Bones: Why?

Class: Nonviolent direct action – the power of the people!

Bones: Where are the Jim Crow, segregationist, Bull Connor, George Wallace terrorist states of the American South?

Class: Absent!!

Bones: Why?


Bones: Where is the brutal Apartheid government of South Africa that imprisoned Nelson Mandela for three decades?

Class: Absent!!

Bones: Why?


Bones: Where are the dictatorships of Marcos in the Phillipines and Allende in Chile and Milosevic in Serbia?

Class: Absent!!

Bones: Why?


Bones: So many absent! So many absent! And where are the totalitarian governments of Eastern Europe that were backed by the Soviet Union – backed by a superpower with nuclear weapons that nobody could attack with violence. Backed by an army with weapons so destructive not even the United States with all its 20,000 nukes couldn’t attack because it would have gotten blown back up itself. Where are they?

Class: Absent!!

Bones: Why?


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Bones: Yes!!!!!!! And that’s how we overcame one arrogant, violent, self centered, two bit trumped up bully and bully system after another!! That’s a big part of how we got here!!

(Art jumps up with guitar.)

Art: Yes!!! That was a big part of it. But let’s catch our breath here and think about some other parts. One of the things we realized early on was that kids –and adults – were suffering from a very peculiar disease that made them be out of touch with each other and out of touch with themselves and with reality. I am talking about Nature Deficit Disorder. So we started getting them outside. Outside those little earbuds they were using to listen too much to machine music. Outside, singing a different song!

This one we have to act out so I will need some volunteers from the audience to go outside with me. It’s number 7. It start’s like this.

“There was a cedar at the edge of the bog. There was a cedar at the edge of the bog. And it wasn’t long ago and for all that we may know, you may see that cedar whenever you go . . . back . . . there.”

Now I need a couple people to act out the next part. (He gets two volunteers, one to be the cedar tree, the other to be the deer. Then everyone sings the song, a section at a time. And after each expanded iteration, he gets volunteers to play the parts of the droppings on the ground, the poplar that thrived, the beaver that gnawed down . . . et cetera.)

Cedar at the Edge of the Bog

There was a cedar at the edge of the bog. There was a cedar at the edge of the bog. CHORUS:

And it wasn't long ago and for all that we may knowyou may see that cedar whenever you go . . . back . . . there.

There was a the deer that ate the tips ofthe cedar at the edge of the bog. [2x]

There was a poplar that thrived onthe droppings on the ground ofthe deer that ate the tips ofthe cedar at the edge of the bog. [2x]

There was a pond that was built by the beaver that gnawed downthe poplar that thrived onthe droppings on the ground of

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the deer that ate the tips ofthe cedar at the edge of the bog. [2x]

There was an osprey that dove down forthe trout that swam about inthe pond that was built by the beaver that gnawed downthe poplar that thrived onthe droppings on the ground ofthe deer that ate the tips ofthe cedar at the edge of the bog. [2x]

There were some naturalists that watched the osprey that dove down forthe trout that swam about in the pond that was built by the beaver that gnawed downthe poplar that thrived onthe droppings on the ground ofthe deer that ate the tips ofthe cedar at the edge of the bog. [2x]

Art:So we worked on the Nature Deficit Disorder with songs like that. But it

wasn’t all just song and games though. We built a lot of organizations for friends of the parks and streams and mountains and bays and other parts of the landscape. And these Friends got to be really good friends. They started to spend their gift money and their weekends and vacations in support. They started to have loveathons on Valentine’s day and barbeque-athons on the Fourth of July.

Bones: And when their parks and streams and mountains got in trouble – well, they started to go sit in front of bulldozers and sit in Congressional offices and send out news on the internet and move their retirement investments into the ownership of landscapes in ways that would protect them and all kinds of creative things.

Elise (smiling): And was there any kicking or birth pangs in this process? Art:

Well of course! Of course we had some “contractions” that hurt a bit and sometimes more than a bit. But a lot of it all had to do with the way people looked at things. For instance, one of my neighbors – who will remain nameless because he lives directly west of my house and we are now very good friends (smiling) – he told me one day that he thought these parks and things were just too expensive and that we needed to cut taxes. Cut taxes – you’d hear that a lot. Taxes were too high they said. It’d gotten so a lot of people had this idea from a man named Grover Norquist.

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Norquist said that we needed to shrink the government down so it would be small enough to drag it into the bathtub and drown it.

So I said to my neighbor: “Look, I think we should raise taxes. That’s right. Raise taxes. Taxes are too low. Why? Because we should learn the lesson of Wallmart. When you buy things in bulk, you get a better deal.

“I’ve got a 300 foot driveway with a bit of a drop to it and every year I have to pay someone to plow it in the winter. Most years it costs me four or five hundred dollars. The guy who does it works hard and I’m not complaining. But look. When I want to go somewhere it costs me more than a dollar a foot just to drive the first 300 feet on my private road. And then, once I am there, I can drive across the state – and across the country – and it costs way less than a penny a mile for the plowing. Why? Because we have learned the lesson of Walmart. When you buy in bulk you get a better deal. And that’s what parks are about. And public schools. And public health. And public utilities. And public care for all kinds of commons. When we buy in bulk, we get a better deal.

Elise: Thanks Art. Can someone else tell us a story about how we got here?

Allan O’Dale:Well another thing that happened was that we all started realize we shared a

common story. Some people would say we came from a Garden of Eden somewhere in Africa. Other people would say we came from places where bones are fossilized like in Olduvai Gorge, some place in Africa. But what we could all agree on is that we all come from Africa. And we share a common set of genes that are our legacy as humans. One song about this is number X.

(Leads all in singing.)

We all come from Africa (available at: https://graycox.bandcamp.com/track/we-all-come-from-africa)

I come from the State of Maine, the place we call Downeast. Very pretty island . . . you should visit me. Very pretty mountain, very pretty streams, fingers of the ocean caressing me.

But we all come from Africa, all come from Africa, all come from Africa, all come from Africa, Africa.

Some headed north, some headed east. All the way to my home island came the Wabnakis. Some come on feet, some come on wheels, some come on wings -- ohh . . . see how it feels!

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Many different voices, many different songs. Many different dreams -- dreams and visitations. We come from a tree, we come from the ground, we come from the ocean, we come from a cloud.

Here we are in this crazy state, maybe we'll be here next week. Or maybe up in the mountains, maybe down by the sea. Dancing in Life’s details, laughing at our luck, spinning on this crazy globe -- holding each other up.

Arco Iris (coming to center): Muy bien!! Muy Bien!! Yo me llamo Arco Iris. Hola!!! I come from Mexico. I have been coming to the Camp here now a long time

and doing trainings with all sorts of different people. Elise, you are wondering how we got this Earth to be so much more peaceful. Well one of the things we learned to accept and even enjoy early on was how different we all are. And how interesting and even exciting it can be to follow that Rainbow Rule. Do unto others as they would have you do unto them. Because we are all others!

In a way it is easier to say this in Spanish than in English. In Spanish one way we say “those guys” or those “others” is to say “los otros”. You can hear the Latin version of the “other” in the “otros”. And one way we say you all is “vos-otros”. And the normal way to say “we all” is “nos-otros”. So the thing is, in Spanish, it can be really clear that los otros, them all, and vosotros, you all, and nosotros, us all – all of us are “otros” are others. Todos somos otros. We have been celebrating this for a while at this camp and at the trainings we do here by singing song number X, Todos Somos Otros.

(Arco Iris teaches the song line by line and then has all sing it. Note that the verses are sung in a way that invites the audience to shout out the labels “blancos”, “negros” et cetera as Arco Iris responds playfully.

Todos Somos Otros(available at: https://graycox.bandcamp.com/track/todos-somos-otros)

Chorus: Yo sé que los otros, cada uno y una, Yo sé que vosotros, cada uno y una, Yo sé que nosotros, cada uno y una, todos, todos, todos somos hijas e hijos de Díos, hijos de Díos y la luz todos, todos, todos somos hijas e hijos de Díos, hijos de Díos y la luz

Y tal vez, un día, tu mamá te dijo a tí que: "Ellos son diferentes, no son como nosotros. ¡Son indios! ¡Son blancos! ¡Son negros! ¡Son católicos! ¡Son evangélicos! ¡Son . . . jo jo jo jojos!" Pero . . . Chorus

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Y tal vez, un día, tu papá te dijo a tí que: "Ellos son diferentes, no son como nosotros. ¡Son capitalistas! ¡Son comunistas! ¡Son brigadistas! ¡Son imperialistas! ¡Son feministas! ¡Son blablablablajistas! Pero . . . Chorus

Arco Iris:Muy bien! Muy Bien! Gracias! Gracias a todos! Y Gracias a la vida! (Sings)

“Gracias a la vida, que me ha dado tanto . . . “ But Sister Satya, maybe you could share some now about being thankful not to just each other but to all of life?

(Sister Satya comes to center and stands still for a moment. She smiles at everyone and takes three deep breaths, inviting them to join in.)

Sister Satya: Sometimes it helps to think about basic facts. It can be hard. It can even be a

little scary or weird. But it helps to think about them. It helps. For instance. We are all born naked. And we die in those same bodies that

came into the world naked and go out naked. And underneath our clothes all of our lives, no matter what we put on . . . underneath our clothes, even here and now, we are all naked. (smiles.)

And we are breathing. We breath in air and it goes in to our lungs and then our blood and then all through our bodies and then back to our lungs and back out in our breath. In and out. And when it comes out it floats all around . . . all through the air in the room and beyond. And then someone else breathes it in, and it goes all the way in their blood to their finger tips and skin and then back out . . . and into the air and then into trees and grass and plankton in the waters and birds and other animals . . . we are all connected by this commons of the air that reaches from our feet to the sky. There is a little song about this we began to sing some years ago as we tried to help ourselves see the world differently and live in it differently – live more and more connected to every other creature. It is called “An Air for Buddhists and Other Animals”. The words are in your book.

(She teaches them and all sing it as a round.)

An Air for Buddhists and Other Animals(available for download at: https://graycox.bandcamp.com/track/breath-on-the-water)

Take this air and pass it on, reach down breath it all the way in.

Pass it on and share and share again.It's all breath on the water; it's all breath on the water.

Ommmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

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https://graycox.bandcamp.com/track/breath-on-the-water

https://graycox.bandcamp.com/track/breath-on-the-water


Ommmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.Ommmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.Ommmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.Ommmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.~Animal calls.~Animal calls.~Animal calls.~Animal calls.~Animal calls.

Elise: Thank you so much Sister Satya!! And now I think someone who has been a musician and a seeker all his life

might be able to tell us more about the details of just how people started to act like they were connected, sharing the breath on the water. Pete?

Pete the Seeker (moving in to the center with his guitar):Yes. People needed to make the leap doing the things they knew needed to be

done. From the paralysis of analysis to the satisfaction of action. Like with climate change. We knew burning fossil fuels had already put more

carbon in the atmosphere than could be sustained. We were beyond the 350 parts per million that would raise the temperature 2 degrees – 2 degrees centigrade. That 3.4 Fahrenheit. We knew what was going to happen when we went from an average of 30 degrees in places in the artic and Antarctic to an average of 33.4 – melt . . . But we needed to go from the paralysis of analysis to the satisfaction of action! We all knew people in the United States and the rest of the developed world were consuming at a level where if everybody on earth did it we would need an extra 3 or 4 planets – or more. And there was no Planet B. We had to cut our consumption in half -- at least! But a little voice in almost everyone’s brain kept saying “Cut my consumption in half? Inconceivable! Inconceivable!” And big voices in the media kept saying “Inconceivable! Inconceivable!”

But then some of us noticed that we all already knew a lot of people living on 10% less than us. And we could just imitate them. And cut our consumption by 10% in the course of a year. And then 10% the next year, and so on till we got down to meeting the future halfway. And then when those voices whispered – or shouted – “Inconceivable!” We started saying (in a Spanish accent) “I do not think that word means what you think it means. “ (laughs). When people retired they started moving in to smaller homes. When people graduated from college they decided to keep living low on the hog and put their savings into socially responsible investments so they could build wealth instead of consume random stuff. When kids moved out, parents started renting rooms to raise their income so they had more to share in solidarity giving with folks in need. One day a million and a half people went to Washington to ask for funding for Planned Parenthood. They came from all over and they spent an average of a hundred bucks a piece on the trip. And they suddenly realized they each had at least 9 other friends

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back home who would have spent a hundred bucks on a trip like that as well. And if they all pooled that money it would be 1.5 million time a thousand – 1.5 billion. They realized they didn’t need to go begging for health care from political nut jobs who didn’t believe in prenatal care and birth control. They could just fund it. Period. And they did.

People didn’t cut their income. They just cut their personal consumption. And then they took what was left and used it to act with power, to take the future into their own hands. When the federal government refused to fund the Global Climate Change initiative, 350.org organized mass actions to fund through people power. People started to spend their wealth on acts of charitable solidarity and socially responsible investment and political change. That old chorus of “Inconceivable!” just started to fade away like a fad that started to look so ugly and so “yesterday” and “over”! Hmmm hmm. Yes! People started singing a different tune -- like good old number 11. (leads with guitar in the singing)

350 to Save the Sky(available for download at: https://graycox.bandcamp.com/track/350-to-save-the-sky)

Now I was born with a great desire to set my share of the world on fire. To set my share of the world alight and share in the flicker of the flame at night. But with all the candles I did burn, at both ends, I did learn, To share in the settin’ of the world alight and share in the flicker of the flame at night.

CHORUS: So come ye now join in with me, we’ll clap our hands, we’ll stomp our feet, We’ll lift our voices in a cry: Three Fifty to Save the Sky!

Now some would like the world to turn on the energy of the coal they burn And let the climate change go on till most of Bangladesh is gone From New Orleans to New York’s Coast up to Alaska’s permafrost They’d rather sell their ancient oil than love our land and save our soil.CHORUS

We’ll buy back our ancient rights and stop consuming day and night, invest more and consume less and tell our worried children yes! Yes we love you! Yes we care! Yes we’ll give you your fair share! Put half our income all aside to stop the storm and turn the tide. CHORUS

We’ll store up our energy by digesting some calories And when it gets all dark at night we’ll wind a crank and make some

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https://graycox.bandcamp.com/track/350-to-save-the-sky

https://graycox.bandcamp.com/track/350-to-save-the-sky


light. And if the weather does get cold we’ll all put on a few more clothes And for when we would move at great speed we’ll harvest sunlight that we’ll need. CHORUS

We prefer to all invest in things that give the earth a rest Cut our consumption right in half and spend our time in greater laugh - Ter Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha, Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha, Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha CHORUS

Politicians all do seem to be living in some strange dream, They’d rather go and pass the buck till someone else runs out of luck.But we the people really care and we’ll not stop till they run scared. We’ll make our leaders save the sky -- and kick their butts till they cry:CHORUS

CHANT: Three Fifty to Save the Sky!

Robyn: First it was 350 people chanting.

Satya: Then it was 35,000

Arco Iris:Then it 3 and a half million – and people all around the world.

Bones: Kicking butts and making change!

Satya: We had been waiting for the governments of the world to solve the climate

change problem.

Arco Iris: Some of us had been waiting for so long. They had been negotiating since

before we were born. Negotiating to see how much they would sacrifice, how much they would give to say yes to their children and give us our fair share for the future.

Robyn: We kept hoping the governments of the world would stop acting like national

security states protecting their territories and expanding their national interests and start acting like earth stewards caring for our commons.

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Arco Iris: And then . . . we stopped waiting. We stopped waiting for our governments to

start acting like sane, moral people – and we, the sane, moral people, started acting like governments.

Satya: Just like Gandhi said parallel government. Freedom, home rule, self

government, Swaraj – it comes when the people refuse to cooperate with unjust governments and corrupt civilizations. It comes when the people start governing themselves, village by village, region by region, till there is a home rule for the whole country in India with Hind Swaraj – and a stewardship for the planet with Earth Swaraj.

Arco Iris: The security states kept meeting to have a treaty on climate – but just for

show, to pretend they would do something real. But the people’s of the world start doing real things. In 2012 at the World Social Forum in Rio, cities and banks of Asia all on their own committed to hundreds of billions of dollars in loans for climate change adaptation and mitigation in urban infrastructure.

Robyn: And women’s groups and youth groups and indigenous groups and non-

profits and religious groups and cities and small states and even major corporations from all over the world took initiatives to invest in renewables and educate and cut consumption and boycott dirty industries and monitor carbon footprints in supply chains and reduce them.

Bones: And it was a mighty hurricane of activity. And people started to resist and

insist and persist and make things happen. Cause this is what we knew. We knew what number 12 in the Song Book says:

(he leads off the singing)

There’s a Change That’s a Comin’ (available at: https://graycox.bandcamp.com/track/theres-a-change-thats-a-comin)

PART 1: There’s a change that’s a comin (3x) . . . soonAnd it’s comin’ like a hurricanecomin’ like a droughtAnd it’s comin’ like a glacier melting . . . (mouth clicks as water drops)

PART 2 : Cause they say it’s gonna be, gonna be at least 2 degrees (3x) . . . soonAnd they say it may be much more (3x) . . . than 2

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https://graycox.bandcamp.com/track/theres-a-change-thats-a-comin

https://graycox.bandcamp.com/track/theres-a-change-thats-a-comin


But we all, we all, won’t let itCause we all, we all, finally get itAnd we all, we all, are gonna make a change!!!!

PART 3: Like the nineteenth century end of slavery -- we’ll end fossil fuel dependency!

Like the fall of the Berlin Wall -- we’’ll make a change!Like an old time spiritual revival -- Or a youtube video gone viral!With a billion of us on bicycles -- make a change!Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Cut by half our material consumption -- Invest in real creative destruction!Start a political eruption -- make a change!With piles of political donations – campaigning door to door in conversations,We’ll take back the governments of our nations -- make a change!

PART 4: Yes there’s a change that’s a comin (3x) . . . soon!Cause we’re comin’, comin’ like a hurricane! We’re comin’, comin’ like a hurricane!We’re comin’, comin’ like a hurricane! Soon!!

Yes! We’re comin’, comin’ like a hurricane! We’re comin’, comin’ like a hurricane!We’re comin’, comin’ like a hurricane! Soon!!

RHYTHM INTERLUDE

PART 1: There’s a change that’s a comin (3x) . . . soonAnd it’s comin’ like a hurricanecomin’ like a droughtAnd it’s comin’ like a glacier melting . . . (mouth clicks as water drops)

PART 2 : Cause they say it’s gonna be, gonna be at least 2 degrees (3x) . . . soonAnd they say it may be much more (3x) . . . than 2

But we all, we all, won’t let itCause we all, we all, finally get itAnd we all, we all, are gonna make a change!!!!

PART 3: Like the nineteenth century end of slavery -- we’ll end fossil fuel dependency!

Like the fall of the Berlin Wall -- we’’ll make a change!Like an old time spiritual revival -- Or a youtube video gone viral!With a billion of us on bicycles -- make a change!Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Cut by half our material consumption -- Invest in real creative destruction!Start a political eruption -- make a change!

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With piles of political donations – campaigning door to door in conversations,We’ll take back the governments of our nations -- make a change!

PART 4: There’s a change that’s a comin (3x) . . . soonCause We’re comin’, comin’ like a hurricane! We’re comin’, comin’ like a hurricane!We’re comin’, comin’ like a hurricane! Soon!!Yes! We’re comin’, comin’ like a hurricane! We’re comin’, comin’ like a hurricane!We’re comin’, comin’ like a hurricane! Soon!! Two! Three! NOW!!!!!!!!!!!

Elise: Now. Now this is the kind of future I like to visit! I want to thank you all for making it happen!! Thank you all!! It’s such a beautiful, beautiful future, I want to take share the good news all

about it. I want to take your stories back to the time I came from in 2017. People will be so glad to hear all about this!! They need to hear about this future and see that it is possible – possible to haveA world free of war and the threat of war in societies with equity and justice for all.in communities where every person's potential may be fulfilled. and where we live on an earth restored.

So let me ask you to help me with the trip back, back through time. We need a kind of reverse energy this time, one that will let us go back safe and sound to 2017. So just repeat what I say as I pass by you again and we’ll start this time machine whirring . . . (she sings these phrases to the melodies of the songs they are from as she goes around the room getting everyone to slowly swell with the songs into a crescendo in the animal sounds and then back to a quiet and meditative but resonant “at hooooommmmmmeee”.

ommmmmmmmmSmilin’ all the timeTodos somos hijas e hijos de dios It’s all breath on the watersWe all come from Africa Heyyyyyyyyy! Hey! Hey! Hey!350 to save the skyWe’re comin’, comin like a hurricaneAnimal sounds Makin a changeAt hoooommmmmme . . . (deep breaths)

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(Elise returns to the center stage by the campfire and stands still repeating breathing deeply. Art comes over.)

Art: Thank you Elise. That was an amazing journey. It’s an amazing future we

have to look forward to. And it starts tomorrow, bright and early. So we better get a good night’s sleep.

Elise: Actually Art, it starts tonight. In fact, it starts right now. This is a really

wonderful group of people gathered here. And you all have created a really amazing time machine. And the thing about this machine is, it does not have an off button. Every second of every minute, for the rest of our lives, we are going to be travelling into the future.

What we need to remember is that its motion doesn’t stop, but the people who steer it do. Steer it well. Keep your eyes on the prize! Hold on! Keep the fire burning! Share the Commons!

(The following folks all start choruses of songs one after another in a loud voice on the first line and then quiet down but keep singing, one after another as they walk through the audience to head back to their cabins for the night repeating the choruses like they could not get them out of their heads.)

Preacher John: Hold on because a change is comin’ . . .

Robyn: Smilin’ all the time I love you . . .

Satya: Take this air and pass it on, reach down, breath it all the way in . . .

Jamie: One citizen went out to try . . .

Art:We all come from Africa . . .

Arco Iris: Yo sé que los otros, cada uno y una . . .

Pete: So come ye now join in with me, we’ll clap our hands . . .

Bones: We’re comin’, comin’ like a hurricane . . .

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(There is no curtain call. The performers and audience mingle and leave together as they feel led. As the crowd begins to clear, Art asks people to help stack the chairs and put them away.)

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fire-in-the-commons-script file · web viewa large spacious room with moveable chairs...

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