Chapter 18 — A Letter for Benji from the Country
A serial novel in the form of correspondence among a family while the world as we know it collapses around us. I recommend you start at the Introduction:
https://readmedium.com/climate-for-change-introduction-5331d5ab9313
But you can start anywhere you want.
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Chapter 18:
Printed on computer paper (hand delivered by Charlie):
Dear Benji,
It is 5 a.m. here, and I just erased the letter that I wrote to you yesterday. The gist of that letter was that your grandma and I, and everyone in our little refugee commune and gift economy township are doing well. There is no war with General Stewart, although we have shot down a lot of drones. I think he thinks by isolating us, he will starve us out. In fact, we have been stronger because we have needed to depend on each other in a way that we never had before.
I threw out the first letter because I woke up with a dream that I think might apply to your situation. You know how I put great stock in dreams. They are messages from your subconscious mind about things that your conscious mind cannot see. When the conscious mind is turned off by sleep, the subconscious mind puts on little plays which feature the ego as the main character, and all of the others in the dream are pieces of the whole that the ego has neglected. Dreams are also many-layered, and though they can be simple ego plays, they can be a chance for your higher self to connect to the collective unconscious of all of the humans on the planet and possibly the collective unconscious of the world itself.
In the dream, I hear jazz music played on the radio in the other room. I see the dusty trombone on the table, and as the jazz musicians on the radio groove their way through a few solos, I decide to pick up the trombone and play along. There is an electric rush of memory. The cold brass. Which hand does what? Yes. It is like this. Then I bring the instrument up to my face. I purse my lips and blow as I remember how from long ago. The sound that comes out is nothing like what I hear on the radio. It sounds more like a wet, weak, uneven foghorn. I could not identify the note that I played, if indeed it could be called a note. In front of me I can clearly see what it would take to relearn how to play trombone. There would be hours of practicing scales until the positioning of each note was back in my muscles. There would be the need to relearn how to read music, which should come easy. The hardest part would be the need to train my ear, which I had never really done as a teenager. In my dream I am sure I can do it if I want to. I might have to find a teacher. But then I abruptly stop, and I decide to put down the trombone.
When you begin something Benji, the whole universe lines up to help make it happen. Your mind starts to reorganize around the chosen task, and you start to see things that were there before but had no meaning. It is like magic. The mere act of deciding to do something is enough to begin this process. If you set your intention and make goals, the magic is intensified. If you take a concrete step to begin something, then the universe really starts paying attention. In my dream I could see how the magic of beginning a project could be marshaled to help me relearn how to play the trombone, which I briefly played in real life in ninth grade. I was inspired by the jazz music and my memories. My dreaming brain started to reorganize my life around relearning trombone, but then I put the trombone down.
I take two lessons from this that might apply to your situation. First, you get to choose where you put your attention and what you begin. If you begin a plan to escape from your prison, the universe will help make it happen. You may not succeed, but you will think about it all the time, including in your dreams. The people you meet will be evaluated by your subconscious mind by whether or not they align with your goal of escape. Your whole self will organize around escape.
Second, based on what you said in your letter, I don’t think you should be thinking about escape at this moment. I think you should choose to focus your magic on beginning your intention, and setting your goal on undermining the camp from within. Escape means you will have saved yourself, but what about everybody else? Where would you go? If you decide to stay, then changing the camp might make the situation better for everybody. Of course, I am far away, and your situation might change at a moment’s notice, so feel free to follow your own gut in deciding what to do. You will anyway.
Your grandmother sends her love. She says she knew you were alive. She could feel it. She wants you to stay strong and know that we are all pulling for you.
According to the English Broadcast Group, the war in Europe has not yet turned into a worldwide conflict. It appears that Russia doesn’t want to use nukes because they know we will use them back. They invaded the neighboring countries that were unprepared, but they don’t have the strength to continue invading other countries, especially now that every country that borders Russian-controlled territory is armed to the teeth. The Russians had hoped that the people in the countries that they invaded would welcome them as liberators, but instead there are armed resistance groups fighting the Russians in every place they invaded. People don’t like to be invaded. It seems like the situation is at a stalemate right now.
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Next chapter: here. https://readmedium.com/chapter-19-a-mothers-letter-6a6872e68b4c
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Author’s note: And if you are not yet a Medium member and want to find out what happens to Benjamin, you have two options:
- Join Medium. I think it is worth it! Use my referral link: https://gaertner-andy122.medium.com/membership
- Email me, and I will send you a friend link: