Jonathan Castle, 56, seafarer, ecologist, skipper of 'Musichana'
“The truth is so often the reverse of what has been told us by our culture thatwe cannot turn our heads far enough to see it. “ Howard Zinn
I grew up on the lovely island of Guernsey, now sadly corrupted by the global finance industry based there. Still, the beautiful shores and off isles, the mighty granite rocks, all with their own personality, the golden sands, tidal swirls, sea weeds, the many coloured clear waters; the fish, the shellfish, the seabirds, and the gentle inhabitants of those humbler years brought out the wonder in me. That's one of my strong roots. And from my earliest memory I always hated unfairness and bullying. And I got used to saying something about it. As I grew older I recognized injustice, hypocrisy among the powerful and rich, the underlying evil of power inequality,and the many ways we fool ourselves for our own peace of mind, bacause we all like to think we are the good guys.
I have sailed my own boats and others in direct actions and protests against many manifestations of harm and greed: whaling, overfishing, deforestation, waste dumping, GM crops, nukes, plutonium, searches for more oil, militarism. Assaults on Mother Earth.The mad materialism, the globalized economics of consumerism, the industrialization and de naturing of every last little magical thing on the planet and beyond, aided by the narrow eyed religion of scientism.
I believe there is a spiritual dimension to life.There's a lot more going on than we know or can know.There is a meaning in things, I don't know what that is, but that's ok. Something to do with oneness, the harmony of all the myriad elements that go to constitute our wonderful mystical habitat. So its to do with respecting and honouring all facets of that oneness, to do with love, Big Love, and being as human as we can be, just like a beautiful sweet scented little yellow flower on a wild scraggy gorse bush is being as nmuch of a flower as it can be, for its short life. Then it goes back to wherever, and another little gorse flower takes over.
I have gained sustenance and inspiration from the ancient holy wells and great stones left by the pagan ancestors,scattered accross the sacred landscape, from taoism, from the Friends of Bideford Quaker group, from living nature.
Now we will be proud to raise our tattered pennant beside our brothers and sisters of Chagos. This is one more small struggle, part of the greater, the war of the Machine,Mammon, against our beautiful Earth home,against Liberty, Equality, Community, Truth, Justice and Love.
The Machine seems to have all the cards in its hand, armies, money, cruelty, violence, and we are the poor, the voiceless, the outcast, the peaceful. But in truth, we have right on our side, and we are in the flow of Life as opposed to emptyness.
The baton has been passed to us, in this life. Here we are, we carry it forward from our ancestors, it's our honour and our duty to pass it on as best as we can, to our children and our childrens children. Forward now, together, laughing in the wind.
That which you sow, ye shall reap