Yes, dear readers, I am slowly groping my way to a new relationship. Perhaps ‘groping’ is an unfortunate word. Shall we try ‘forging’ or ‘negotiating’? Hmmm, perhaps not, as one suggests something counterfeit and the other resolving differences by logic and trade-off. Relationships are after all 90% emotional and 10% rational. No, I mean some gentle settling in, a relaxation of expectations without either side making demands. After all, the other party doesn’t have much brains and is without representation. No, the rules and circumstances of this relationship will have to be entirely defined by me, though the real power lies with the other party.
I am trying to define my relationship to the environment, to Possum Valley. I came here almost 40 years ago, and the ecosystem came here about 500,000,000 years ago. Before that there wasn’t life on land, no fauna or flora, and I’d have been talking to rocks. I guess that makes me a Jonny-come-lately.
In 1976 a friend and I paid some money to another person and ‘bought’ Possum Valley. What does ‘bought’ mean? I own and possess the entire land, both trees and plants and all the animals upon it and can change, plunder and destroy at my whim anything already here? Apparently, as the ‘ownership’ was duly recorded in state archives and now I was lord and master of all I survey. At that time there were few or no restrictions on what I could do with the land. In my first months here, I came to see the richness, vibrancy and complexity that I could in no way create or duplicate. Fortunately for me, previous owners had cleared some land for grazing thus relieving me of the guilt factor associated with destroying some of this environment. In fact I have preserved only a few acres around the cottages and have let natural processes take over the other cleared ground.
Many cultures do not have the same concept of land ownership. They certainly had the concept of rights of land usage and fought wars to establish their rights. But they had the idea that they belonged to the land and were actually defending the ‘country’ when waging the wars. I am talking about aborigines and north American cultures. The concept of owning the land was absurd, when generations had come before them and taught them the sacred sites of ancestors and spirits that had shaped the land long before they were there.
I wasn’t taught these secrets, and come somewhere between these two entirely different world views, our ideas converge on preserving and maintaining the richness and variety that was bequeathed to us, to try and hand on to the next generation no less than we inherited. As human numbers increase and consumption of resources explodes, this ideal is harder to achieve. I am only answerable for my deeds in the times in which I live. I perhaps leave an ever more difficult task to my children. For now, I have begun to understand my role as custodian of Possum Valley. It has been thrust upon me by the whims of European law, whereas in a traditional culture, it would be the responsibility of all. I will try my best.
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