Freeconomy Blog
Thu
20 Mar
Endings and new beginnings...
| 11 comments |
After a couple of days of recuperation in London with the amazing Sarah, we got back on the road again with a march to the march. The Stop the War Coalition, led by veteran campaigner Tony Benn, organised an huge event across 87 cities of the world, and as we were in London we thought we best make our way with the thousands of other activists to show our disapproval of the governments foreign policy.
Now I have given up being an ‘anti’ person long ago and I don’t believe that ‘anti-war’ is giving out the best signal – it’s like fighting against the fighting. As Mother Teresa once said, I’ll never go to an anti-war demonstration but I’ll go to a peace demo anytime. However this time I felt it was still necessary as the issues on the Stop the War Coalition’s agenda are of prime importance. Firstly, they want the immediate return of all British Troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, something I agree in the mostly with, though I do understand it’s not quite that simple. I think a plan for their imminent return is crucial though.
On top of that, they want the British government to stop supporting Israel in it’s campaign of violence against the Palestinian people. This is a must – I feel the entire situation in the middle east will not be resolved until this is, it really is that vital. And thirdly, they want to stop the war with Iran before it starts. Sounds like a funny thing to say, but that war has already started. All wars really start when the government’s spin machine start looking for ways to justify it.
But anyway the day went brilliantly and without a moments negativity, let alone violence, hence not giving the media any opportunity to cast the campaigners as a bunch of terrorists. The day was rounded of by unexpectedly meeting my good friend Juan Gabriel Gutierrez who was doing a talk on the situation in Columbia at the moment, something that doesn’t make it on the news anymore. We then went off with a great woman who we met at the march to rest our heads for the night in east London.
We woke up the next morning faced with the prospect of a 75 mile hike to Cambridge. Armed with some food an enthusiastic supporter of what we were trying to do gave us, we legged it out through North London in the afternoon before coming up against a platoon of boy racers late that night.
A few times already during the walk in the UK we had doubts whether what we were now doing was the best use of our time on this planet. The media had killed it with it’s stories of us ‘quitting’ (which we never had!), making a difficult task even harder, whilst the fact that British people don’t walk much in the winter meant that opportunities for interaction were slim to none. Some days I’ve walked for 30 mile and only met a couple of handfuls of people. This time however felt a bit different. For the first time on the journey my heart was saying I should stop walking and only my head was saying to continue. And I am a heart person, often to my own demise.
I learned so much stuff about myself and the rest of the world in the last two months that I had been thinking a lot about the things I need to do in the last week. My heart had been longing to do them for about two weeks, and it was only my head saying ‘no keep going, this may begin to work once momentum builds’ that was keeping me going.
So halfway between London and Cambridge we decided to call it a day and to go and put our energies into bringing the freeconomy community to the next stage in its progress from a base in which our needs for food and shelter are met everyday. In Calais the decision we made was partially influenced by the fact that we were very hungry, very tired and very cold, though also by our talks with the Afghan and Iraqi Refugees.
This decision was made though without any of those factors. We had enough food for the journey, though it was mainly dried fruit, and the weather was a bit less wet and cold. The question we asked ourselves was “is this my best use in the world at this moment in time?” Once I decided the answer was no, we packed up our stuff, and decided to hightail it back to Bristol, where we both lived previously, and got welcomed by all our amazing friends. Since then I’ve been eating vast quantities of food to try to put back on the stone of weight I lost in the last two months, a stone I didn’t really have to lose either!
This time there are no apologies, only thanks for all those who had a part to play in it all the way, both our supporters and critics. This decision was based on what was best for this community to grow. For a while now I was concerned about whether or not the pilgrimage was actually damaging the community, in as far as all the media and testimonials were focused on it as opposed to the aims of the community. However it did bring a lot of people to this website and so the media have done the message a huge service in many ways.
From today onwards I will be working hard to bring the freeconomy community to the next level, something that was impossible to do on the road. In a way I feel I left the baby too soon – it’s only a month old in human terms! What I am going to be doing over the next six months is forming models that can be used for people wanting to organise freeconomy events or meetings anywhere in the world. I will be testing them here in Bristol, refining them and then putting together a package that pioneers in every neighbourhood, town or city can use (or to completely ignore if they want to try something completely different!) to get people in their locality together and sharing.
This blog will now become a place where I let you know my thoughts and perspectives on everything I see in this world, for two reasons. Firstly, to raise awareness of a lot of the issues I feel are important in the world today, both physical and spiritual, but also to raise lots of debate so that we can all refine our ideas, beliefs and opinions from what we learn from others who join in on the debate.
So for me the inner pilgrimage goes on in a way. There is no end to anything, just a continuous journey, often not in the way you first expect. My focus is now on making this the most amazing community in the world to be part of, to get people together all over the planet sharing and coming up with solutions to this crazy world of ours and to hopefully spread peace in the process of all that.
I hope you understand my reasons for ending the pilgrimage in the form it was in. The work continues as soon as I finish this. If anyone wants to help out, email me Saoirse@justfortheloveofit.org, I would love any assistance in any form as there is so much to do!
In the coming days and weeks, I will share with you my ideas, through this blog, for what I want to do in my own locality regarding freeconomy, and I would love to hear your thoughts and ideas on how we can get people together sharing their time, skills and everything else.
Onwards and upwards!!!
Comment on this Post:
Shaz nottingham comments ...
much love to you Saoirse - I’m sure you are doing the right thing - keep trusting your heart my friend - you are an exellent human being - much love to you and Eric xx
brother Wilson... comments ...
Wonderful my friend, a beacon of light you are. I personally believe this is a very wise choice bless you brother just for being you..... (",
You my friend have been a constant inspiration to so many seeking souls, I say Yay brother upwards & onwards indeed...
I feel a change is in the air for all of us, what’s true one day becomes something else the next, beliefs change & so do idea’s, everyday is always completely unique & brand new. If we continued to live by yesterdays thoughts, beliefs & actions were would we be, stuck on a treadmill called yesterday... yeesh could you imagine that constantly living by yesterdays beliefs & rules, evolution of consciousness would just take forever, sound familiar...
It takes a brave soul to live in the now & to realise what’s best for themselves & all others in each & every passing moment.. It takes a brave soul to stand up & say hey that’s maybe what we were doing/being yesterday & it worked then fine but today how about trying something new something a little different how about this....
Thank you brother Saoirse for all that you are,
you are a blessing....
peace, love, light & blessings to you brother
wlsn
(",
namaste
we are all one
to the stars & beyond...
Gandhi comments ...
First walking to India - which ended in Calais when you realised they didn’t speak "the language".
Then walking around Britain, which ended before you even reached Cambridge.
Why stop now?
Rather than quitting maybe you can just scale the pilgrimage down a little bit further?
How about a epic trek around your kitchen in Bristol?
But knowing your record though I guess you’d quit before you made it past the fridge.
Helen comments ...
I have to say that I and many others think you’re wasting a lot of time and energy doing what you’re doing as the free economy in Bristol is already well established and booming.
I also think that your grandiosity and unmanageability on both your journeys was an absolute joke and that you were doomed to fail from the start.
Reading your blogs however, proved to be excellent entertainment as there’s nothing funnier than watching the demise of a would be Jesus and Buddha and it gave me great pleasure to know that you lasted one night in the ghetto before you both bottled it. The only other place where you find more chicken is Miss Milleys!
For Christ’s sake stop being ponces and act like men.
You’re too up yourselves and it’s very apparent that you freeload of women. (Yes we did notice that all the people you stayed with were women and that a 17 year girl old supplied you with traveller’s cheques on your failed walk to India.)
Stop running and hiding by taking spiritual names and get a fucking job!
In all seriousness if you’d both put the same effort you put into being bums into an established charity instead of all your self promotion you’d have actually made a real difference to the world.
Think about it!
Au revoir - because I unlike you can speak French.
Bill Hiderman comments ...
Congratulations Mark.
You saved the NHS sectioning service a lot of money that would have otherwise been spent on Eric.
I find it very telling that you Mark never comment on your feelings towards Eric. I suppose you are at least a little bit media savvy.
It’s very hard not to see your escapades as pretentious and self promoting and there’s a lot in your behaviours that appears to be underhand and manipulative.
I agree with Helen I’m afraid, even if she seems to be a little unforgiving in her choice of words.
Come on guys. Stop being wasters and do something constructive with all your good intentions!
Sandra comments ...
People can be so mean. Just ignore them. You are both true visionaries and can camp in my bean field any day. Remember that all prophets have suffered the same abuse. Peace Love and Light
Nadia comments ...
Well done for listening to your heart. Sounded like Eric wasn’t doing what was right for him either from some of the stuff in his blog.
I’m looking forward to hearing your ideas and models.
I am interested in getting a group together in my locality -we really need to start looking after eachother more and the work you are about to do will greatly help that I feel.
Love to you both,
Nadia xxx
eric the fool comments ...
i’d like to set the record straight by saying that i thoroughly enjoyed my time on the journey
i enjoyed my moaning about the walking
i enjoyed the company of many good people
i enjoyed the adventure
i enjoyed the freedom
i enjoyed learning many lessons
i enjoyed failing
i enjoyed being a wuss
i enjoyed my successes
i enjoyed my brief period of infamy (and now the fact that some people have it in for me too)
and i am definitely enjoying the masks and comments i have been reading today
i enjoyed playing the fool to the king
and id do it all again at the dropof a hat, wouldnt you?
the only thing i regret is that i wrote a blog rather than making a video blog, because just like email and texting, it only gives the words and not the tone or the body language, meaning some people may not have got what it, but say la vee, sorry for the spelling, because i dont speak french (!)
anyway, thank you for watching and reading, and long may this melodrama continue, just dont take any of it too seriously ;0)
Nadia comments ...
Hi Eric,
I just meant that you seemed to want to do it differently from Saoirse’s way.
I look forward to hearing about your journey as a fool with a group of clowns.
I may even join you for a day if allowed as I think clowning could be good for me -I’m not walking from town to town though!!!
You’re blog has been fun to read as well as inspiring -hope to read more soon.
Nadia xxx
Tara - Hippy Central comments ...
Blimey some very different views have been expressed as a result of this ’action’. I guess it is healthy that people feel unafraid to commment without restraint.
On some levels, I do see why people feel impatient, judgemental and mocking towards this escapade.
It now seems claims made by both parties were unrealistic. I must admit I thought the idea of ’walking to India without money’ was slightly ’off the wall’ at the outset before the first trip. I found myself feeling sceptical when what I felt I was supposed to be feeling was the idealism and enthusiasm of it all. Actually my scepticism proved quite realistic. Not sure whether I feel good or bad about that now.
However, the two journeymen have taken the criticisms on the chin and withdrawn from the walk with a certain amount of dignity and humility.
They have exposed themselves through doing it and have now been the subject of ridicule as well as admiration.
They say they have learnt a lot from it and i have to admit it has certainly taught me a thing or two and provided some amusement to boot.
I wish them both well and would say cautiously ’dont listen to the detractors’, since this is what i need to say to myself every day to keep my own spirit of adventure, which is quite minimal recently, alive.
Tara
rosamundi comments ...
Er, hm. There’s nothing wrong with you that some long-overdue growing up won’t fix eventually, in, say, a few thousand lifetimes. In the meantime a sense of humility, if not humiliation, should - we hope - shut you up. Oh, and take that picture of you Striding-Nobly-Onward-in-Self-Sacrificial-Glory off the website. It’s a bit of a farce by now, you see. And in the name of all true pilgrims for chrissake have the decency to STOP CALLING YOURSELF ONE!
