The Quest.
For the Garden of Eden a search for a ‘Pristine Wilderness’ untouched by man, a landscape of beauty and tranquility.
Introduction.
From a very early age, I was fascinated by small life forms such as Ants, Slugs, and Woodlice. All collected from the tiny backyard of our East London equally tiny 2 up and 2 down house. Most of the yard was taken up by our outside toilet and a brick coal house. There was also a pile of roofing tiles the source of my collection of ‘wildlife’.
Let me continue this story.
Death and destruction, when the search for a better place to live and enlightenment on how to live out my life began.
I will hand you over to my Fairy God Mother who can continue the story in the third person.
“Bombs are falling all around their tiny, terraced house in East London UK, during World War Two, for it was a nightly German raid at the height of the London Blitz. With a brave face, John’s mother was making up his favorite story “Cinderella”. A tale of rags to betterment, and the gift of three wishes”.
John liked the animal picture books or the story of Cinderella. His mother did not have a book about Cinderella, so she made it up as she went along, but she knew the main plot. Anyway, he loved it and he never grew tired of it.
One night after reciting yet again the story of Cinderella, he asked his mum
“Mum, do all people get three wishes, just like Cinderella did?”
“Only if you are good for a whole year,” she said.
“If only I could have three wishes”, he said, sadly.
She replied, “You may be so granted, but only if you pray hard enough”,
“Then I want three wishes,” he said,
“OK, you have three wishes,” she said with a flourish of arms,
“What are they, let’s hear”.
“First, I want a big garden with trees and then I want part of the garden to be mine, then most of all I want to go to Paradise”.
“Well,”, was his mother’s drawn-out reply,
“The first two wishes the Fairy Godmother can deal with”,
“What’s this about paradise?”
“It’s the garden in the Bible picture book from Sunday school” he replied.
“Oh, you mean The Garden of Eden”, she informed.
“But where is it? I want to go there” he butted in.
“It was a long time ago and far away, but it’s gone now”, she said.
“Why? were?” he cried with tears in his eyes.
“Because God did not think we were worthy of such a beautiful place” she replied.
“Why?” he almost shouted.
“Because we are all sinners” she continued.
“Has the Garden gone forever” he whined.
“No,” she said, trying to console him, “some people say there are many such gardens, but you have to search for them, but they are out there somewhere”. Fairy godmother.
My Fairy Godmother has been with me all my life, my inner self, constantly reminding me which path to take.
So, the quest began, a search for a ‘Pristine Wilderness’ untouched by man, a landscape of beauty and tranquility, a place where I could feel that I belong. The question is, does such a place exist? Is there a place on our planet that is free of humane exploitation?
Later, in my career, I progressed to larger life forms such as Tadpoles, Newts, and Sticklebacks. Which involved a new project of keeping small aquariums. Thus, armed with a primitive net I started a long lifetime of study as a “biology” student.
The next great step in my quest involved a sea of mud. Please progress to How it all began to continue to follow the quest.
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