Originally published March 2012 at DecisionLab, a sociocratic co-operative business I co-founded in 2009
With thanks to Ian Lawton
I was at last week’s Greenspeak, recently relaunched here in Brighton, with NEF and Mappiness. I really loved this brilliant Edward Abbey quote relayed by Andrew Simms.
It really speaks to my own experience and learning as an activist, and to my own roots: as a proud descendent of ramblers involved with the great ‘mass trespasses’ of the 30’s, whose ashes were scattered at the base of Great Gable, and as someone who knows the importance of balancing long hours with finding refuge in the views
from the peaks, of dancing and comedy, of listening in awe to the sounds of creatures usually unseen.
After all, if we are serious about sustainability, then we have to take it seriously in our own lives, and we have to take laughter seriously too. If we truly care about the dreams that we are working to manifest, we must look after our own wellbeing in order to stay the course. We need to be in this for the long haul:
“Do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am — a reluctant enthusiast… a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, the lovely, mysterious, and awesome space.
Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much; I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk-bound men and women with their hearts in a safe deposit box, and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this;
You will outlive the bastards.”
Martin Grimshaw
