We're Just Animals

We’re just animals like all the others;
diverse, yes,
and different from them, but still, one of them,
one of them bound to this planet, this earth, this soil and rock and
growing plants,and so tied to its fate, to the pollution we
make, to the way it changes.
Changes in a way that will probably kill us, and we’ll see it in our lifetimes,
our children dying around us in a starving and dying world.

And so much will go, even if we entertain the idea that humans will survive these climate changes,
so much will be lost,
so many species will become extinct,
so much diversity will die,
so many things that will cease to be
in a will-never-happen-again way
in an always-impoverished way.

And the rich won’t escape,
because they still need people and power to move all these people around
and all these goods around
for them.
They may prolong their life,
but that will just mean they see more death around them
and so have an impoverished life
full of death!

Weirdest 12 Events in Europe This Winter

1. Going “Fairy Dancing” in Pembrokshire, Wales. That involved doing strange circle dances on the side of a wet hill, with bare feet, treading in sheep shit, to the music of the harp, accordion, flute, and sheep horn.


2. The drunk trucker who picked us up E of Paris. Drunk, and still drinking. And coming down off cocaine. And high. And convinced that he could drive at the same time as looking at a map and explaining where he would drop us off. And swerving wildly. I guess it was more scary than weird.


3. Laura spent her time at Isidore’s farm massaging the arses of cows. OK, it was really their backs, just above their arses. But she had to stand behind them in wellies, hardly able to walk because of the shit on the floor and rub them, “so they would get used to humans touching them.”


4. Playing “Sport” with Isidore’s daughter in Rupt Devant St. Mihiel. This involved jumping over an elastic cord, and then hooking the cord around your nose, stretching it, and jumping free from it. Truly weird. Sadly Isidore himself died in an accident after we left. RIP, you were a great man.


5. Travelling to and arriving at Tabby’s. See the “Unfortunate Events” post.


6. The New Years Eve party in France – getting lost on the way (while other people who were lost were following us!), the weird rave tent (with children running between everyone’s legs), the old man who tried to kiss and molest the girls, and the pyro/firework dancer.


7. Night of the wigs. Again, at Tabby's. With Jean-Baptiste!


8. The little goat at Tabby’s. I’m pretty sure it was tripping on something, the way it jumped and frolicked, tried to head butt the ground with its horns, and kept falling into the narrow trench we were digging. Weird Animal.


9. The devil with right-handed cramp. Rennes-les-Château.


10. The day trip to Andorra. This was meant to be a nice day out to visit and explore the country. Instead, we broke down and overheated the car, packed the engine with snow and ice to cool it, stopped quickly to buy tobacco in Andorra, and then rushed home to meet the new WWOOFer, Geoffrey. Again, with Tabby.


11. Being taken to Portugal, while hitching, by someone who went out his way for us, took us out for coffee, and yet didn’t understand a word we were saying. And we didn’t understand a word he spoke either (except “Café”, which when we heard it, we were so relieved to hear a word we understood we responded “yes, yes (si, si),” even though we didn’t really have time to stop). We did make it to our destination that night though, so all’s good.


12. Being picked up hitching by a family of Romanian gypsies. 10 of us packed into the vehicle, with two of the teens on the bed in the back and the baby on a lap. The teens tried to get money and weed out of us to pay for the lift, while the father/driver insisted the lift was free and nothing was asked of us. They were very kind though, and fed us crisps and sweets, dropping us in the South suburbs of Sevilla. Close to midnight in the rain. Which sucked!