Day 34 of the End to End was, due to weather related issues, along the A38 to Kempsey. It therefore seems a perfect time to write about orchids.
Wild orchids are amongst my favourite British flowers and my LEJOG route was packed with orchids (even along the A38). This had been true since Devon at least and would remain so right up to the final day in Caithness. Different species of course and indeed one of the joys of the walk was coming across orchids, often species I’d not seen before, in the most unexpected of places. The orchids themselves varied from isolated spikes to whole meadows full at one time. Beside any path for the next 750 miles or so, there would be orchids.
Some of my friends thought I became a bit obsessed photographing orchids. With my trusty camera phone in my hand I’d crawl and crouch and collect photos by the dozen, or hundred even. Of the 11,000 photos of the LEJOG more than quite a few are of orchids. But they are fascinating plants even though I’m no expert. As diverse and as beautiful as they can be unexpected.
But was it all just a distraction keeping more from more important thoughts? No, I don’t think so. Biodiversity is vital to life on our planet. When, by our human activities we limit that diversity then we threaten our own existence as much as we threaten that of any other species. There was a lot of talk about Action for the Climate in 2019, much of which is now over taken by COVID19 talk. But the two are linked as reduced emissions illustrate.
And COVID19 talk is of course also a cloak for other important concerns. Take any subject in Britain today and you will find opinion pretty much polarised: democracy, racism, VE celebrations, PPE and care homes or whatever you choose. We should keep churches open, we should keep them closed. Foodbanks are vital, foodbanks should be closed down. Older people are valuable (they hold important memories of WW2), older people are expendable (let them die of COVID19 in care homes). We’ve already forgotten the real lessons of WW2 anyway.
If you examine any of these issues you will see the split for yourself and it is always a split that exposes the vulnerable ones in our society to further vulnerability. Stay strong is the potent message. The land of the strong and the fit is the new version of Hope and Glory. On one side the message is there’s a difficult call to make between bodily health and economic health. For this read: the rich are bothered that they too might loose money. On the other side there is the call to respect vulnerable people and not just reel off figures and statistics as if counting sweeties.
As the survivors of WW2 die in dozens, killed by the COVID19 bungling of a government that says it values them the most (even if they have to walk laps to keep the NHS going), what dies with them is the story of the real rise of fascism in Europe in the 1930s. I’ve tried to be an ambassador for the stories of real ordinary people caught up in for example the Holocaust (thanks to the Holocaust Education Trust) but ultimately we are going to have to do more than tell stories if we are really to check the poisonous effects of our current obsessions with ourselves, our money and our strength and our Glory.
From the remembered gospel
Consider, if you will the orchid, it neither sews nor spins, but I tell you that Solomon, in all his wisdom, never got it so right as one of these barometers of the health of our shared planet.
We are all gloriously connected, Cosmic One, through you, God of all.
On my knees before even the smallest parts of your creation,
I see all the interlocking complexity of life in a blade of grass.
May we who espouse the side of the poor and vulnerable,
Just like your Son, walk decently, with integrity,
and may the paths of peace we take extend to all
a shared way of hope and love,
that leaves none behind and overcomes even death itself.
JAL: 09.05.2020 in Longdendale.