all meeting on the ledge...
I was in one of the giant supermarkets today...Saturday...bad day to be buying anything...I had time enough at the cash-out to read the covers of the 'real life' celebrity magazine covers...and I have to say that Angelina Jolie is not looking well at all. I looked up along the 30 odd cash-outs in-front of me and watched the fathers and children, mothers and children passing through with the kids hanging on to the trolley as if it was Santa's sledge.. interestingly I didn't see many mums and dads together..I guess they flip the Saturday shop coin and see who runs the provisions gauntlet. It was hard not to recall the image of the father and his son from the movie The Road, I shan't spoil it for those who have not seen or read it..(I recommend both reading and watching it). Earth is dead and dying, cannibals roam the land and one boy and his father clutch on tight to each other and the shopping trolley of salvaged goods, heading for the coast in hope of hope...It's a brilliant image of the end of mankind with the trolley as the decaying symbol of mans greed...but more than that I am focussed on the way the father and boy hold onto each other and are completely reliant on each other. They each represent hope to one another and a reason to continue. The boy asks 'are we the good guys'.
Are we the good guys and what are we holding onto, clutching onto?
The monkey who tries to get the apple out of the jug but cant because his paw and the apple are too big to pass through the neck. he will have to let go in order to get the apple out...but he does not.
So my question is what am I, what are we holding onto so tight that it is stopping us from moving on...surviving. As
individuals and as global community what values - greeds - lifestyles - are we clutching onto be it consciously or unconsciously, that make The Road more than
a gripping drama but a shuddering glimpse up ahead.
So today I am listening to Fairport Convention and Sandy Deny tells me that too many friends have tried, blown off this mountain by the wind...this is a song that has both haunted me and provided me with hope ever since I heard it as a teenager...I imagined everyone I knew treading very slowly around a mountain on a very thin ledge...very scary...but what gave me hope was that in my minds eye I saw the people on the ledge were protecting themselves from being blown away by...simply holding each others hands... they were each connected to each other and therefore were not a single fragile being able to be swept away but a thousand legged chain tightly leading their friends through danger...
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