From Virtual Marcher to Marcher

[By: Tuck Taylor]

I was a virtual marcher prior to the kick-off rally in Wilmington.  However, as a new “actual marcher,” I’d like to share a couple of impressions of my time on the road.

Participating in the “organized chaos” that occurs every morning has given me a greater respect for the Army’s capability to do a similar feat with thousands of soldiers every morning in the field.  I know we will be building our capability to give logistical support for the thousands that will be joining the March.

I was struck by the sacred nature of our enterprise last night as our community sat in a restorative circle in a pine forest in the Tonto National Forest in Arizona.  It was a large circle of us in chairs, some of us sitting on the ground.  As the afternoon light faded, I looked up through these tall trees to get a last look at the blue sky.  The trees were spaced around as if they were people, standing and looking down at us.  I was visited by the image that these fellow beings were together in a desire to offer us their nurturance.  Still in this reverie I saw all of us, small, seated marchers and giant pine trees all rooted to the Planet from which we all emerged.

I am beginning to see a way in which the power of what we are doing for the Planet — our mad March for Climate Action — can be put in service of our “allies” to valorize and amplify their various and related efforts for Earth.  My initial fantasy was of our version of a Nobel Prize.  We would discover and discuss and decide on which organizations to so honor.  We would notify them of our decision and present them with an awesome official document with press covering the presentation. We would offer to create and display on auspicious occasions on the March an equally amazing banner.  Such banners would be a suitable redesign of the current vertically displayed Climate March banners.

There is so much more that is going on for me on the March, but this will have to do for now.  I have to go pick up the laundered dishtowels.