WORM’S EYE VIEW NOEL HARROWER I wind my way round earthy clods climbing darkly to the light. Squirming out from damp new grasses, sliding, gliding, seeking, hiding through the jungle of the lawn, wriggling, hunching, reaching, bunching painfully on gravelled paths. Is it worth this day-long journey across the plateau of the yard, risking death from flying monsters or the crunch of giant’s feet - all to reach the windfall apple, invisible – but good to eat? The Merry Go Round We’re caught in a culture of buying and spending. Our thoughts are beings shaped by the ad’s on TV. We’re caught in a culture of following fashion - our mindsets are honed by the soaps that we see. “The market is driven by what we all spend.” “We can only spend what we’ve earned or borrowed, but earnings means jobs must be found in the end, and borrowing means that we have to re-pay and interest is earned by the people that lend. Now the market’s gone flat. The aren’t jobs around.” “But you must all keep spending to stoke up the engine.” “We can’t because we don’t have the wages to spend. They call this recession. I call it regression. The roundabout’s broken can somebody mend?” -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Alternative Because we are skint, we must learn our old ways: the ways that we lost through the passage of time. We can grow our own food in the family garden - we can darn our old socks - we can make do and mend - we can sell the big car and use cycles instead. Forget about landfill - recycle instead. This new way of life is really the old one, but it can be more fun –if you find you’ve the heart. We can barter our beans with the woman next door who has hens in her garden and eggs by the score and this is a way to stoke up the engine – an old way of life, recycled once more! Noel Harrower Secretary, Transition Town Exmouth

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