20th August 2010
Ashton Court Estate, Bristol, UK.
Oak
The deer are in a cage to protect them from us. The tree is in a cage to protect it from them. This tree’s a cage… I’m the prison guard too making me look out through these wooden bars every day, and the world is a cage we can never escape from, stuck circling a burning fire in space… forever! (- to misquote a line that was cut from one of my plays). Ha! No, when I’m in a tree being moaned / grunted at by a group of stags to protect the herd… its pretty swell, and not your every day occurrence. It’s made me put animals on the list. Need to get more animals involved. Or at least on camera. They were a bit timid but id like to come back and hide here if possible, get some close ups. Nearly a hundred deer here.
I totally confused them when I left the ground and climbed into the tree. Never before seen round these parts… “How did he do that?” They all stared at me until I got down. You can’t convince a wild animal of something other than what it believes. Here’s the bit where I pretend to sound intelligent again… There was nothing I could have done to make them relax other than deploying a tranquilizer machine gun. Their minds could not be changed. We the people who came out of the trees are supposed to be the sophisticated ones among us on this spinning dot but we seem a lot like wild animals in this way.
Believing what we know and no more. We who are vaguely conscious and have the means to change the world… we are the only ones who are truly responsible… as an aside. We who can see the ‘cage’ but do nothing, we would be brought in front of the court in the sky if there was one. You can’t blame a kid who gets run over if it’s never been told about cars. Most people don’t see ‘the cage’, the wider problems. They know something’s wrong… their being reacts with aggression, fear, mistrust, pack animal behaviour…etc. animals don’t see the bigger picture. The most enlightened people can’t either but here’s the difference.. they are trying. To understand. These animals had nothing to fear of me but their narrow view of the world stopped us from hanging out. Would be great o hang out with deer in a wood. They couldn’t read the subtle signs. They pigeon holed me as a potential threat. That’s the difference with having an open mind. The ability to look and think before making an immediate judgement… an instinctive / reactionary response. When presented with new information not to disregard it without first examining it. Keep learning and ascending. Growing. Admittedly – if I was hanging out with these deer and got peckish… it’s possible… so maybe they had the right idea.
