{"id":607,"date":"2012-02-18T20:16:09","date_gmt":"2012-02-18T20:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/digitaljournalist.eu\/OnTheRoad\/?page_id=607"},"modified":"2012-03-14T14:23:04","modified_gmt":"2012-03-14T14:23:04","slug":"kevins-story-solsbury-hill","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/alanlodge.co.uk\/OnTheRoad\/kevins-story-solsbury-hill\/","title":{"rendered":"Kevin’s Story – Solsbury Hill"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kevin’s Story – Solsbury Hill<\/h1>\n

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It was early March 1994, and I was living in a cottage on the outskirts of Bath. I did not know it, but I was on the verge of an experience that would drastically change the course of my life. I was about to be re-educated, and my tutors were a group of people who lived a life so different from my own that when I first met them my initial reaction was that of shock. They came to fight against the construction of a road that was being built fifty metres away from my home. The issues surrounding this road and the entire road-building scheme in Britain are fundamental to the way that I live now; but it is not the roads I want to tell you about.<\/h3>\n

I want to tell of a group of people who fought a battle using smiles and humour; who opposed force by absorbing it rather than throwing it back; who stole the hearts of their local supporters with their almost painful-to-watch love for their Mother, the Earth. They arrived slowly over a number of weeks, their matted hair and earth-coloured clothing giving them the appearance of an ancient Celtic army warped forwards in time and preparing for battle.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Within minutes of meeting the first arrivals, I knew that something very special was about to happen. There was a burgeoning feeling of excitement. These people intended to change the world.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

My first visits to the abandoned buildings and protest encampments in which my new neighbours lived were brief. I brought chocolate cake and received warm welcome. Slowly, some of the protectors became my friends; and that is when my education began. Rob the Didge taught me how to value the through-flow of possessions and valued objects, the joy of giving and the alien ease of quelling aggression with warmth, love and acceptance. A woman called Niamhy showed how a person can move through life constantly emanating palpable love. For months.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I bathed in her rays. A man called Kit screamed his masculinity so loudly that I recognised the male power within me that had sat dormant for years. This male power helps drive me now, no longer ashamed. Wanda, Indra and Emma showed me a female power that generated such levels of respect that I am still reeling from their impact. Egalitarianism at work.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

My education is still continuing now. A man called Raven still appears regularly at my door. The things he teaches me seem preposterous and outlandish, but I suspect that his ideas will soon meld with my own. The lessons that I have learnt are many and various, and as I sit now, I feel enriched by the time that I have spent with people who truly live their ideals rather than just espousing them.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Today is my last day as a County Council community worker and I am glad to be leaving. My work has been valuable, but always limited by the constraints of a system that produces the need for commmunity workers in the first place. I am becoming immersed in a new and growing culture – the culture of a dynamic and caring community where everybody is a community worker. My new community practises putting bodies where beliefs are. We work with the principle of personal empowerment. ……..\u00a0And we are at the cutting edge of change.<\/p>\n

Back to ‘Enviro Short Stories’ ><\/a><\/strong><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kevin’s Story – Solsbury Hill It was early March 1994, and I was living in a cottage on the outskirts of Bath. I did not know it, but I was on the verge of an experience that would drastically change … Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-607","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanlodge.co.uk\/OnTheRoad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanlodge.co.uk\/OnTheRoad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanlodge.co.uk\/OnTheRoad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanlodge.co.uk\/OnTheRoad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanlodge.co.uk\/OnTheRoad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=607"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/alanlodge.co.uk\/OnTheRoad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/607\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":641,"href":"https:\/\/alanlodge.co.uk\/OnTheRoad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/607\/revisions\/641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanlodge.co.uk\/OnTheRoad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}