02 July 2020

imagine the world anew



I try to cycle for while every day, always the same long loop - as we call it -, about 10 km, 35 mins at best. I check the sky for rain and get on with it, despite aching joints or that gruesome tiredness (fatigue, my doctor calls it, ever so proper). First I wind my way southwards through our suburb, past the string of old village houses, timber framed, medieval, low roofs, the playground, the fish shop, the pharmacy, the school yards, the park where elderly men wearing masks play boules, the villas from the Wilhelminian era with their high windows and fancy stucco fronts and topiary framing the garden gates, and so on until I turn sharp left and roll down towards the ferry and onto the bike path along the river. If I needed to, I could cycle north on this path all the way to the Dutch coast or south all the way to the source in Switzerland, always with the river beside me, on and on - I have almost done it both ways. It's nice but tedious in places.
But at that spot, here where the ferry crosses and I have rolled down that small hill, it's gorgeous. The river is like a sheet of blue green wavy glass, swans and ducks and barges and rowing boats, there are the castles on the top of the hills on the other side amid thick forest, the light, the clear air, and I could sing it's so lovely and expansive and pleasant. And I fly all the way back, pedalling faster and faster.

Listen to this short text by Arundhati Roy.
I think more and more that we are facing our one and only chance as humans to find our real potential at last. Provided we can shake off the distractions from these nasty old men and their empty dreams of money and power.


Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it.

9 comments:

  1. I will use her quote on my blog, and hope that everyone thinks about this portal and what is needed next. Thank you!

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  2. It is good to hear Arundhati Roy's voice today.

    Thank you for taking us with you on your 35-minute bike ride, especially that part where you cycle next to your beautiful river. It was an emotional experience for me to picture moving through your landscape,

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  3. Loved going along on your bike ride, especially the "gorgeous" part. And the words of Arundhati Roy. I prefer to think it's God bringing us to our senses than a plot by some humans against others. We are all so alike, and could achieve much more by co-operation than by allowing our small differences to cause us to waste time, energy and lives fighting. Time to drop the weapons, the prejudices and all the old baggage and "walk lightly" through the portal.

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  4. Thank you Sabine. I needed to hear that today and every day.

    The bike tour was lovely to imagine. I was there with you.

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  5. You always give me so much to contemplate. That Roy quote says it all. I’m going to borrow it, as indeed I borrow so many quotes you share. You are a master sharer of wisdom. Your heart zeroes in on truth. I would love to see a photo of your spot by the river. Then again you painted it so vividly with words I already see it in my mind. Thank you.

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  6. I'm happy to read that you are biking so often. It is such a pleasure.

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  7. Anonymous02 July, 2020

    Your bike ride sounds so beautiful. I love the way it stretches on and on, that you could bike all the way to Switzerland along the river. Such beauty. I don't know how to contemplate the future yet... I am waiting.

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  8. Arundhati Roy is one of my heroes. It's interesting how some of our "leaders" are so eager to go right back to the status quo -- the wealthy and powerful clearly fear what could happen if we remake the planet in new ways.

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  9. One of my 22 yr old granddaughters (twins) and I had a conversation by text about how things need to change, how the old system just isn't working for the people anymore. I told her her generation needs to get involved, vote in every election, run for office. if they want people in the government that are different and fresher with different ideas of how we live then they need to get involved and make the changes happen, that their generation is big enough to have a real impact but only if they act instead of just complain.

    I think the old normal is gone. I didn't think things would change dramatically but now that we all have been living the 'less is more' lifestyle for 4 months maybe people are finding how much freer and simpler their lives are. some people anyway, I'm sure the working poor lives will not be altered.

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