last updated: 14 April 2025
Extract
book 3/3, shaping
Where do we go from here & decisions
The easy town books are my main work, and when the Views from around the universe grew, it was only a matter of time before the universe would slip into the main stories.
The following is an extract from the third part of book 3, where the Views from around the universe are included in the story for the first time.
This extract is particularly interesting for this website because it adds some thoughts on attack, the.
For more about book 3, shaping, visit the easy town books website.
Charlie Alice Raya, 2025
++++ 17
The sun bathed the balcony in a cool light.
Alice was wrapped up warmly, sitting in a wheelchair, a cup of tea in her hands.
Kahu sat on the balustrade, reading aloud: ‘I was tired. I needed sleep. But sleep kept eluding me. So I looked at the back of my eyelids and watched as strange colours pulsated before my eyes and turned into roads, houses, flying. Did I see a tree? I don’t remember. But suddenly curiosity took hold of me. Could I imagine to grow into a tall tree — in this strange state between dream and reality?
I want to try, I thought and wondered: how do trees grow? How do they grow?
I eased my eyes to sink into my imagination. I breathed deeply — and there I was: a tiny seed in rich, moist, dark soil.
I liked it in there. It was surprisingly warm, invigorating, and my curiosity was joined by excitement. I was a seed and I was curious. I wanted to expand. I wanted to discover. I raised my head, broke my coat and eagerly pushed through the soil and suddenly I gasped: the light, the air, the space above the ground, wondrous, beautiful, liberating. The rays of sunshine touched me, warmed me, nurtured me, more the more there was of me.
But suddenly, I hesitated. I had a head. I had a leaf. I sensed the breeze, the light. I was alive. But what about roots? I had none. A gust of fear assailed me, urged me to hurry to my other side. I chuckled. My underside. I smiled. My anchor.
Eagerly I returned to the warm, moist, rich soil, soaked in the grounding welcome and began to grow my roots. I took great pleasure in expanding, in branching out, in thinking up ever more intricate patterns for my net of roots while feeding on all the nutrients, drinking the remnants of rain, crossing paths with earthworms and greeting a family of mice.
But once again, I suddenly worried. This time about my head which was swaying in the breeze, alone, so small, just one leaf.
How do trees do it? I wondered. Do they grow in all directions, all the time, ever stretching into all dimensions, ever extending?
They must. How else would they anchor themselves? How else would they grow strong to withstand the storm?
My puzzled mind stepped closer to reality and pondered that it’s strange that a tree grows at all and all the time and in all directions. How do they do it? Do they have any priorities at all?
As I sank back into my imagination, I felt this urge to fill all of my tree-me, the tinies parts of the roots, the first breaths of every leaf, the trunk, the bark, the branches, the network of roots and leave nothing unattended.
But why?
Because— Yes, because everything is connected. Every part of tree-me matters, every part wants to be nurtured, wants to grow, is alive.
Everything is connected. Everything feeds all of me.
How much we humans have forgotten. How little we pay attention to every part of ourselves.
How little we grow and less expand.
Another thought shaped itself in front of my eyes. So often humans dismiss the young as unworthy while afraid of getting old, ignored.
But if — like a tree and every living organism — we saw the wonder of growing, expanding, and embraced it, age wouldn’t matter any more.
A sapling isn’t unworthy or lacking. It is exactly what it is supposed to be: the first heartbeat, the core, the beginning, the foundation of the growing tree. Everything else wraps around that beginning. Everything that happens adds layers and new branches, even moss and fungi, changing what the tree looks like, shaping the tree’s views, its understanding, its connections. But the changes won’t make the tree better or more valuable or any such linear attribute. Growing extends, both in size, strength and in the amount of branches, leaves and fruits. If a tree keeps growing, keeps expanding, it will have more to give at every stage of its existence. But that doesn’t devalue the first apple that was ever theirs to give. — These were beautiful thoughts, but they didn’t get me to sleep.’
Kahu looked up from her thick notebook.
Alice smiled. ‘Beautiful.’
‘There is more. We call the collection Views from around the universe.’
Alice chuckled.
‘It’s a project I started with some friends.’
‘Friend from the universe?’
‘No, friends from planet Earth. But, as you know, there is, of course, life on other planets.’
Alice smiled.
‘But …’ and here Kahu flicked to the first page of her notebook and read: Oh, planet Earth!
We owe so much to you.
Without the abundance
Of the mistakes you make,
Where would we be?
Where would we go?
To learn.
How not to act?
But the time of selfish indulgence in your failings is drawing to an end since our best thinkers have urged us to share some of our insights with you so that we might not be complicit in your demise. And while we are not ready to meet you face to face, yet, we hope that our thoughts will bring you joy and wisdom.’
‘I like it,’ Alice said and let her mind drift. It was a cold day, but the sun warmed her face, and something in her hungrily soaked up whatever the sun was setting in motion on her skin.
Eliza had forbidden visitors and said that Alice should rest after the transport from the hospital. The first visitor who made it past Jazz had been Andy who said he bribed Jazz. Andy had helped Alice into the wheelchair, made them tea and wheeled her onto the balcony. The fresh air! The sun! What a revelation! After days in hospital.
Andy had been just about to leave, having promised Jazz not to stay for more than an hour, when Kahu’s head appeared above the balustrade of the balcony, followed by her whole body which shortly afterwards dropped onto the balcony.
‘Can I use your balcony for my next visit?’ had been Andy’s reaction.
Alice smiled at the memory and let the pleasant sensation of the sun on her skin fill her.
After a moment, she asked: ‘Kahu, is there a story about why some people feel such a hunger for sunshine and bathe in it for the pure sensation of being touched by its beams?’
Kahu smiled and flicked through the notebook. ‘There aren’t many stories in this collection. Most entries are short statements from different planets, sometimes contradictory. Though on some subjects the universe agrees unanimously.’
‘Such as?’
‘Human, the.’
Alice chuckled, waiting for more.
‘The human is weird,’ Kahu obliged. ‘Ah, here it is: Views from around the universe. Sun, the. The sun brings day, enables life and takes it. Humans on earth don’t take enough care to understand the sun and their dependence on it. Next entry. On our planet we embrace the sun as our silent guide. We rise with it, we rest with it, we celebrate all it makes possible, and we mourn what it destroys. Next entry. We lost our planet to the sun because we carelessly believed we were superior to everything around us and that we had no need to learn, understand and nurture. We are very grateful to the planets of the universe who gave portions of our people a new home and much learning. But we are lost. Our planet is lost. We hope that earth will not follow our example. Next entry. Though this is still a bit sketchy. Why are the sun and the blue sky so positive for the human’s mood? And why does a grey sky depress? Does this indicate a connection between humans and the natural world: flowers, trees, grasses? A legacy of some common roots? Or does the body know it needs the sun to produce vitamin D? Or is this about the fact that the warmth feels good, and therefore the lack of sun registers as an unfulfilled need? Maybe the body could learn that the human has no control over the sun. If it did, could it stop reacting to this need? Or should the longing for sunshine inspire us to act like migrating birds, always moving to where the sun shines? What if a nomadic lifestyle is not only more natural but also healthier? What is the good of the settled human?’
Alice wanted to clap her hands, but a thought was prodding her and got ahead of the praise. ‘What does it say under attack?’
Kahu looked grim.
‘Attack equals cowardice.’ Kahu returned, thumbed through her notebook and opened it close to the beginning. ‘An attack is the failure, both in personality and in action, to communicate, to seek and find common or new ground, to acknowledge that everything is a question of seeking understanding and of seeking solutions devoid of ideologies but tested and evaluated for their use. Next entry. An attack can be the result of a prolonged power imbalance, and often happens when the suppressed lashes out, fed up with the dominant power. In such cases an attack is the failure to balance powers and to avoid dominance. Next entry. An attack is the failure to try to understand what it is that makes us angry and to ascertain that our anger is justified. But even if anger is justified, there are usually better ways to deal with the source of our anger than an attack. Next entry. An attack is often the result of a single, rather harmless thought, getting into the minds of sloppy thinkers, and as those find each other, they talk themselves into having to deal with someone or something decisively. Though, true decisiveness would never result in an attack but in seeking to resolve whatever stirred discontent or disagreement. Next entry. An attack is the failure to recognise that no form of violence will ever deliver a viable solution. Next entry. An attack indicates the lack of digging deep to understand and resolve what triggered a disagreement or an enmity in the first place. Next entry. An attack indicates that a person, persons or a group have not acquired the skill and courage to face a conversation and seek mutual understanding, mutual ways forward. In humans on earth we have observed an impatience to practice thinking or to engage with those who think. Some of this can be traced back to schools which quench the inquisitive minds of their pupils and make learning seem like a dull chore. As a result there is a widespread tendency to avoid thinking and productive confrontations altogether. Instead earthlings lash out (physically, verbally or both) or resort to silence. They keep anger and hatred, and the lack of understanding well nurtured. The latter is often employed as a means of painting oneself as the one who knows, and moreover as the one who knows better.’ Kahu stopped reading and looked at Alice.
Alice grimaced.
While listening her frustration had intensified about— a lot, including the attack. And that must have shown on her face because Kahu said: ‘There is more. But you should rest.’
‘Kahu, I keep hitting the wall.’
Kahu grimaced and Alice added: ‘I feel like I am at least partly responsible for the attack. And your snippets say that, too. But then I think that we are transparent and our motive is to work for people not against them. Kahu, I keep hitting the wall.’
Kahu slipped to the ground and squatted in front of Alice, her hand on Alice’s: ‘The attack is not your fault. That people are confused is the work of so-called decision-makers who have screwed with us for decades. It’s not your fault. Get your strength back. And then — we will find a door.’
© Charlie Alice Raya, book 3/3, shaping, where do we go from here & decisions