15 October 2007 – Victoria, BC, Canada
I creep through the valleys
And I grope through the woods
OK… so, Cat Stevens didn’t actually write this song 35 years ago to serve as a travel guide for a couple of loudmouth-introvert filmmakers in 2007… so, it’s gonna take a bit of creative adaptation, sorta like fitting mainstream media reports to reality. We’re not actually creeping through valleys (though we have ridden through some in cars), nor are we groping much in the woods (though we did take a short walk in a relatively wild bit of city park in Victoria). Mostly we’re riding in cars around cities and taking ferries between islands and main-lands and walking along sidewalks. But, lyrically, that doesn’t really work, does it? I mean, sing along and see for yourself… here we are at the bridge, just after the second chorus, and the music kicks in…
I ride on the ferries
And I walk on the sidewalks
’cause I know when I drive in my SUV
It’s gonna make me feel good
It just doesn’t capture that sense of searching, of questing, of reaching, that Cat was going for, does it? So, let’s just pretend from here on out that Sally and I actually ARE creeping through valleys and groping through woods. Metaphorically speaking, it’s much more the truth anyways… we are most certainly questing…
We hung out with Alex and Raphael and Magdalene and Esther for a time, took a walk into the business area to get some local coinage from the ATM, took a longer walk to the aforementioned park where, we had been told earlier by a breathless Raphael, one could see “an eagle eating a bird”. He and his father had been there earlier and they saw a bald eagle catch and eat a gull in a tree right overhead. We missed that, but we did meet a bit of canine fluff named Ollie. Not material for an episode of Wild Kingdom, perhaps, but still…
Back from our walk, we piled into Alex’s SVO Toyota and made our way into town, and to the Camas Collective Books and Infoshop in Victoria, BC, open just a month or so now, and started with Magdalene’s help. Turns out our screening is part of a busy week for the Victoria collapse-aware, with an End of Empire party coming at the bookstore on Friday, serving as a benefit for Derrick Jensen’s appearance Saturday night at the University of Victoria. Camas is a cool space, with great energy, and works very well for a screening. Alex fiddled with the curtains to keep the street-light out, then got the projector and sound and DVD player working. The rest of us moved sofas and set up chairs and tables and found a box for donations. People began to file in, dropping an offering of that beautiful Canadian currency into our box. Before we knew it, the place was pretty much filled, fifty three people or so, many who had not made their way to the bookstore before, with some of us standing or sitting on the floor. Sally and I did our intro and off we went.
We took a break after the show, then 25 of us gathered in a circle to dialogue for another 90 minutes or so. We spoke of action and empowerment and solutions both real and imagined, of spirit and hope, of pain and suffering and heartbreak and despair. One young lady was moved to deep feeling, another to a newfound commitment to activism. One man was moved to deep ecology, another to tell us of his experience as a member of one of the First Nations. With as much time as we needed, we were able to move slowly, leaving room for our hearts to open and our minds to let go. It was sweet, it was moving, and it was full of heart and life and power. As always, it was hard to bring it to an end.
We went back to Alex and Magdalene’s place and up to Esther’s room, where we slept a full and restful sleep. In the morning we had oatmeal with rosehip sauce and yogurt and maple syrup and apples, and delighted in Raphael as he told us of his world. After too short a time, we piled into Alex’s Toyota, to drop off Magdalene and Raphael in town, grab a cup of coffee, and make our way north to the ferry. Our conversation with Alex was clear and dear and, again, too short. As Sally says, we keep meeting these people and falling in love, only to say goodbye way too soon.
The BC ferry was huge and warm and comfortable and we ate croissant and tallied our evening’s activities and watched the islands as we slipped amongst them. Docking on the Vancouver side, we made our way down the long walkway to the terminal.
And there was Vivienne.
On to Ladner and Vancouver… creeping, groping, always reaching and yet always already there…
Tim
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