so, gb 06 has come and gone. this was my perhaps my best greenbelt yet. days spent in edinburgh during the festival last week allowed me to approach it restfully...ready for a little sustenance alongside the exhalation that gb usually offers. dave andrews was a particular highlight for me. he spoke about social justice and political participation with anger, tears and wisdom, addressing the implications for those of us who feel pain and injustice deeply and are shifted and spun by the fuckedupness of the world...acknowledging that depression can set in, with a feeling of impotence. a gentle reminder that we may have good reason to become depressed when we glance at the world these days, but not reason to become dysfunctional. and so seeds of hope are sown amidst despair, as we turn to neruda's beautiful wisdom...
you can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep spring from coming
he also spoke about the be-attitudes, which i have returned to, and will scrawl about again... ah, what a gentle, angry, emotional, wise, frail, passionate, perceptive, challenging, strong soul. deeply resonant words. deeply resonant presence. to him i say namaste: i honour the holy one in you. as shane claiborne translated during one of his stories.
another gb highlight was kester brewin speaking about dirty theology. questioning our relationship to dirt (our own and that of others), its relativity, how it is bordered and boundaried. suggesting that the festival space itself offered an encounter with dirt, and for material outside of our accepted boundaries, which brought the possibility of renewal, as in the mythological trickster cycles. he advocated the economy of the gift, where we become hospitable to ourselves, to others in communities, and to the other of god. marvellous stuff.
other remarkable gb gifts were the mystery of the mcewans' endless larder (the mary poppins bag of gb provisions, including a fountain of rose wine) from which susan would produce three potatoes and a jar of pesto, feed ten people and still have half a saucepan of leftovers for latecomers; muddy toes and squelching in dirt in flipflops; john bell speaking on the emasculated jesus in the defeminised church; tiny tea; michael franti and spearhead for their energy, passion, playfulness, politics, gorgeous dreadlocks and darn good fun; being around lots of people i think are fantastic, from belfast, edinburgh, bristol, london, sweden etc...; seeing the ikon kids do themselves proud; the joy of a free banana and chocolate muffin on the last night while chatting with chris fry; train journeys to and from cheltenham; being ipodless, even though i felt like i'd lost a limb at first; being nourished.
photos to follow i think. for now, gratitude. for a wonderful festival, and for the reminder of god with us.
g'night.
