I seem to have properly fucked myself up again. I went to Dunkirk Human Being Camp to help the rebuild crew for the women's centre. It was truly an honour to meet and work with all of those men and women, as well as the long term volunteers working valiantly and relentlessly on shelter maintenance. I shan't bore my readers with a list of strangers names, they know who they are and I love each and every one of them. The teams of volunteers at L'Auberge des Migrants warehouse as committed as ever have my total admiration for the work they have done and are continuing to do. Truly these are the unsung heroes of our age in the struggle against the rise of Fascism in Europe. An army of peaceful warriors and compassionate souls whose devotion to the cause of protecting the lives, rights and well being of people from distant lands who have nothing to offer them in return except friendship is an example to us all of humanity at its best. Yes, there are casualties, and although my involvement in life at Dunkirk Human Being Camp has been minimal compared to most I think it is fair to say I am temporarily out of action on any level. Not quite two weeks of hard graft has left me a bit of a wreck, physically and emotionally. But that's my own fault. I drank heavily while I was there, smoked almost constantly and relied on strong painkillers to get me out and mobile each day. Altogether a stupid set of coping mechanisms indicative of my having failed to learn or apply my life's lessons in such circumstances.
Coming home to the Leicester Peace and Love Collective has been bittersweet and it seems evident that I need to reflect on my role and my future in such a communal setting. Am I truly evolved or mature enough to live effectively in a community? It is very clear to me that I could manage and overcome my addictions far easier when I lived alone and that my spiritual aspirations where easier to reach for and practice towards also, although to be fair, I was being looked after by the welfare state back then which goes a long way towards removing other life pressures from ones shoulders.
And yet I love this community of souls that live here, and I see very clearly how what we have is a microcosm of what needs to exist in the world.
A community of unity through diversity. A people united by bonds of affection and genuine emotional engagement with each others well being. Not joined together by any common goal, common belief structure, shared political viewpoint or world view, but strong because of the personal bonds of sincere affection and respect we have for each other.
I could write much more about life on the camp at Dunkirk, and I will at some point. Even though some may feel I've said too much already and yet observe, reflect and write is what I do best. However coming home to the kind of conflicts, misunderstandings, power struggles and relationship dynamics I've come home too has caused me to realise the greatest tragedy and greatest hope the camp at Dunkirk has to offer us all. The saddest thing to me is the peoples inability to put aside their racial and cultural differences and learn to recognise each other as brothers and sisters on the same journey. Some have and do, many in fact, but not all and as is usually the case in human affairs a tiny bit of hate can undo the work of a lot of love.
Then there are the power games, the struggle for control. Games being played out by organised gangs, French police and the government's of both France & the UK.
It saddens me to see this constant manipulation game being played with people by people and I see it both there and here all of the time. People manipulate others into a position of disempowered dependence just to get what they want from them, playing folk off against folk, spreading lies and rumours and treating each other as either opportunities for gain (be that gain influential, financial or sexual), or threats to their sense of dominance that must be eliminated.
Someone asked me recently what the concept of "tribe" means to me. Well I will tell you that I think it is a curse and plague on humanity. It is a reflection of the constant need of the insecure and disconnected self to achieve a sense of belonging through the exclusion of those who "don't belong". The creation of tribe allows us to view those outside the tribe as "not our people" and thus allows us to fear them, hate them and hurt them while feeling justified in doing so.
I tell you now that if you are a conscious being that can feel fear, pain, rejection, joy, hope, wonderment, despair, isolation or happiness then you are in my tribe and you are of my people.
It matters not to me what you believe or how you express it.
I may well not agree with you, and in that disagreement we may struggle to respect each others point of view but that does not mean that we cannot respect each other.
The traditional place where that respect and sense of belonging exists is the family unit, but it seems self evident that in our western and individualist world the family unit no longer functions as it should and is sadly the place where most of the crimes of physical, sexual and emotional abuse take place. It seems in fact to have become one of our biggest threats to the well being of the individual.
So for us to survive the coming storm, and be sure that no political isolationism will prevent it or protect us from it, it seems that new forms of community must be formed. New bonds of affection and trust need to exist between us as communities and we need to learn how to rely on each other and be reliable to each other.
For me this begins with rigourous honesty, even if it hurts to hear it. Even if it hurts to think it and know it about ourselves.
You are all my tribe, all 7 or 8 billion of you, and there are no exceptions.
Love courage and strength to you all.
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