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Stewards of the Planet

Music Release A Day #9 ~ March 25, 2020

Small Craft Advisory #3 ~ Stewards of the Planet

I am particularly attached to this piece as a zeitgeist for the age we live in.  Beyond a doubt, whether we stand up collectively or not in relation to climate will not just define the rest of our lives, but that of our children, and whether they will even have any.   The spirit of our times is decidedly polarized ~ people are either standing up and activating or sitting down and immersing in distractions. And I suspect that in our heart of hearts, each of us will come to face this decision sooner than later, as the spirit of our times becomes increasingly present or impossible to ignore.

We are seeing here and now with COVID-19 that people either get it and do their part, or people are downplaying the science and chalking it up to media hype, and this ends up being an in our face analogy for the climate crises.  Informed observers readily acknowledges the ironies of perceived urgency with the coronovirus and wish the global populace felt that way about climate, but underlying this current crises is the hope that a newfound broader awareness of the interconnectedness of things forced upon us by coronovirus will parlay over to climate awareness as we move through this current challenge.

Wise observers have put forth that responses to a pandemic ahead of time will seem overblown, and afterwards inadequate, and here is another eerie parallel with the climate crises, though nothing seems overblown yet lacking the collective sense of urgency ~ that’s the subject of a previous Small Craft Advisory release, asking “What Will It Take?” for us to reach that point of urgency.

Either way, the Guardians of the Earth, those self identifying as Stewards of the Earth, Earth Warriors, Defenders, Eco-Activists, Extinction Rebellion members… we are waking up, standing up, rising to the occasion, and we will not be deterred from the task at hand.  It is energizing to see people take to the streets all over the planet to call for greater awareness and action, and this global activation feels like just the beginning.  

As the authors of The Dark Mountain Project wrote, Ecocide demands a response. This work is one of mine.

Stand up. Be heard.  If not now, when?

https://youtu.be/PKWMLA-R8Jc


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What Will It Take?

https://youtu.be/6rzuHKujVYU

Release A Day #2 ~ 3.18.20

The second in a series of Theatrical Sound Sculpture Spoken Word pieces by Eric Geoffrey, What Will It Take? is a plea for awakening.  

I sincerely believe if each of us had to look a six year old in the eye who was asking us this question, and couldn’t leave until it was answered honestly, the world would be a completely different place.

I woke up one morning with this phrase on my tongue. In the face of so many global perils and issues and obstructions, I can’t help but wonder at what will it take to truly begin to address the myriad of challenges we collectively face.  What is going to grab our collective attention powerfully enough to transcend vested economic and cultural interests? 

Other people have said it before but it bears repeating ~ if we had an asteroid barreling straight towards us it would be a no-brainer that we would join forces globally and figure out how to avert disaster.  A clear and present danger threatening all of us would unite our efforts and galvanize our minds like nothing else. Yet… it’s not happening.  We are facing not just one asteroid but at least a handful heading straight at us, clear as day, and yet did you see the Knicks game last night? Oh right, you’re not into that, but there’s a sale at Walmart for thneads.  And did you see what Rebel Wilson wore at the Oscars? Whoa!

Granted global climate and mass extinctions and pollinator population collapse are decidedly existential threats and not right in our face like an asteroid would be, or the Coronovirus is.  But that doesn’t make them any less real or threatening.  It could be argued it makes them even more threatening because we continue to let them get worse by not implementing comprehensive solutions. But just because these issues are not in the headlines day in and day out doesn’t make them go away or any less threatening.  

So.  What is it going to take? 

Or are we going to wait until everything breaks?

If this resonates anything with you, please share, send the link to friends and family, tweet it, subscribe, whatever. I just love the conversation that this piece sparks and hope you explore it too.  


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Our Story…

Release A Day #1

Our Story is the poem that sparked my explorations with spoken word expression set to music and started this whole Small Craft Advisory trajectory.  It’s birth in 2016 is a remarkable example of a piece of creativity “coming through” as it was hand-written in one sitting with over three pages and there are no cross-outs. It just exploded into being in one fell swoosh, and my wife laughs about this because I had been telling her for at least a month prior to writing Our Story that I was feeling pent up and felt that I needed to be doing “something” in relation to global issues though I had no idea what.  

Since then I’ve changed the phrasing of only one line as I feel it delivers better, and I still marvel at the process that brought this thing through.  I shot the video in 2017, and though I was generally aware of climate issues, I wasn’t aware yet of the full extent of the problem and my general enthusiasm for the human story and our possible futures was still pretty high at the time.  You can see that enthusiasm especially at the end with my “and I can’t wait to see what we’ll write next…” conclusion to the piece.  I suspect if I was writing this now it would have a much different tone.  However I am choosing to keep it intact as it was written because even though courage has rapidly replaced hope as the operative M.O. for woke folk, I do believe that the sheer amount of variables, especially regarding potential human responses, keeps an extremely cautious optimism in play though it is certainly not dominant.  

Regardless, thinking about our story as a common thread binding humanity has a lot of power to it, and in this day and age the more connections we recognize and nurture between individuals, communities, and species, the greater the odds that we will have something of a fighting chance to not go down with the ship.  

If this resonates anything with you, please share, send the link to friends and family, tweet it, whatever. I just love the conversation that this piece sparks and hope you explore it too.  


If you’ve been moved by your visit, please consider signing up for the occasional newsletter that features new releases, inspirations, and other Tales from the Shadow Gallery…


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