Is it possible for a community to create an indestructible bridge between a remote past and an uncertain future?
And will raising a stone do it?
Gird your Loins! And hold on tight to your leather necklace with the carved Celtic Cross.
This is a call to action.
So, if you’ve been keeping up with the Big Stones Trilogy; Pt1 A Stone, A Community and A Question, and Pt 2 Art for Art’s sake and Stones for Stone’s sake (links here), you’ll know that I’ve become a little bit interested (mildly obsessed) in communities raising standing stones. This is the finale Part 3, The call to action.
Punk Stone Raising.
What I’m thinking is that we don’t need outside ‘help’ to do this. No grant funded, business case driven, evaluated, measured and monitored bureaucratic shenanigans.
Let’s just do it.
Lets not allow project management and paperwork become bigger than the doing.
This should be something rooted in a community. People doing something because we can.
Because we want to.
And we have the resources; a bit of community owned land (probably), tools to dig a hole for the stone base (check local sheds), wooden post rollers to sit the stone on (tucked away in someone’s shed), ropes & rigging for stone pulling (will appear by magic) and… a load of people willing to do the pulling (I hope so).
Oh, and a suitable stone.
Someone somewhere will be able to lay their hands on a 5000kg standing stone for free / modest price including transport to the raising site. Dragging a big stone several Km might be too ambitious at this stage – this isn’t Stonehenge – yet.
PS, Beverages for the celebration afterwards (I’m sure these will also magically appear).
But, but, what does it mean?
Perhaps we don’t need to decide that before we start.
The people who raise the stone can bring their own reasons and ideas. People not involved will have their own interpretations, and future generations will make of it what they choose.
Going back to one of the earlier posts, there was an explanation linked to the Atapuerca stones that went along the lines of,
…nobody knows why our ancient ancestors raised standing stones, and there’s no certainty that future generations will understand why we raised this stone, but it can become…
“an indestructible bridge between a remote past and the (uncertain) future of our land”
“Pont anorchfygol rhwng y gorffennol pell a dyfodol (ansicr) ein Tir”
If the ‘authorities’ turn up and try to stop us we can say it is permitted under Ancient Pre-Celtic Rites and Laws which were never rescinded and are actually permitted by tacit approval at the Synod of Whitby in AD 664 (I might have made that bit up, but it’s worth a try).
Some guiding principles (and boundaries).
1. Anyone and Everyone. This must be open to everyone. From the Primary School to the Older People’s Retirement Home.
If people want to get involved they can. Participation should be broad, voluntary and shaped around what people would like to do.
Just to test the idea, I floated it with my Yoga Class, maybe not the most obvious bunch of heavy rope pullers and stone raisers. But they were on it without even pausing to draw breath and chant ‘namaste’.
The enthusiasm was very real, then someone suggested ‘ooh we could hold rituals’. There’s always one.
But that’s ok, interpretation will be whatever people choose.
2. Nobody gets Hurt. We live in a modern litigious world and the ‘authorities’ have to be satisfied. We really should make sure nobody gets hurt.
So, a bit of Health and Safety Compliance will be necessary. Luckily there’s a Health & Safety expert in our midst, who also happens to be highly enthusiastic about stone raising.
This is serious stuff that needs careful thinking, so it’s good to have ‘sensible people’ involved from the start. Let’s be audacious, not dangerous… Hello James.
3. Is it feasible? It would be a terrible thing to try this and it doesn’t work. I’m all for learning from failure, but not in a public open space.
Luckily a fellow dog walker is a ‘rigger’. One of those people who’s experienced in moving big heavy objects with ropes, slings and chains. Mostly involving powerful cranes, but the principles seem to ‘read across’, I think.
Anyway, I explained the concept and they thought it was totally feasible. The other one thing that came out of our conversation was the idea of getting a ‘Tug of War’ competition up and running in the community – sort of undercover training.
The indestructible bridge / stone.
So, that all seems fine.
Let’s just do it.
Because… if we can raise stones together, what else can we do together?
In uncertain times, who knows when those relationships, skills and deep bonds of being part of ‘something’ will become important. Something to ‘reactivate’ if we need to tackle challenges we’ve not faced before.
The ‘indestructible bridge’ between our past and future, … because we raised stones together.
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