Wednesday 28 July 2010

Poachers

I thought of this a while ago, one day when I was wearing a jacket with deep inside pockets.

In the beginning, we human beings hunted game and gathered fruit and veg freely, where we could find them. Then someone developed herding and agriculture, invented fences, and began the notion of ownership of land and hunting rights. Those who partook freely were now called ‘poachers.’

We Quakers hunt and gather spiritual awareness freely, despite the fact that some people like to put a fence round ‘Truth’ and think they own it. In this respect, we are ‘poachers.’

That pleases me.

1 comment:

Laura Kerr said...

It's good ... I think different images and metaphors are hugely helpful - to me anyway - in understanding and articulating what we are up to as Quakers. But poachers are also, strictly speaking, criminals and thieves, taking what doesn't belong to them....?