The Tiny moving the Mighty

Peter Adams

On Wednesday the Mercury kindly published a letter-to-the-editor that I had written, but because of space limitations it was edited. To give TT readers a fuller story, I offer the following …

THIS is a great story. A story that supports and gives hope for the many individuals in the world seeking change, but who sometimes, like myself, wonder and doubt that their work is having any affect; especially, on the hugh and seemingly immovable government or corporate bodies.

On Monday, as I sat in the bull’s eye middle of the large pastured circle on the Windgrove headland (whose circumference is marked by 300 she-oak trees), I took a mirror and, using the sun’s rays, flashed a hugh ocean going cruise liner some 20 kilometres/15 miles away.

It turned and headed straight towards me.

Wow!! A tiny beam of light was enough to have a 200 meter/ 650 foot, 14 stories tall passenger ship change directions. (I later found out that for the captain to alter his planned course to New Zealand he had to get special permission from the Hobart Port Authority.)

Twenty minutes later the ship came as close as it could to Windgrove without running into Wedge Island; its massive size an impressive sight as it sailed past. Before turning and heading back out to sea, with three long blasts from the ship’s horn followed by one short, the captain signalled a “thank you and good-bye”

Needless to say, I felt elated.

And, I also felt that a significant, if not profound, connection had been made between myself and a few of the people on board The World.

Let’s unwind the story a bit.

The ship itself is “The World”. At 44,000 tons it is the world’s largest, privately owned cruise liner circling the globe. It’s passengers purchase apartments on the ship complete with kitchens, living rooms and bedrooms similar to any land based condominium arrangement with the major difference being that the view out the ship’s “picture” windows constantly change.

Last week, two Americans from the ship, Lincoln and Suzy Boehm, came out to Windgrove for a visit. They did so because years earlier they had been made aware of Windgrove’s focus on peace and the environment (as well as my individual studio sculpture work) while viewing the SBS Global Village documentary on Windgrove.

We walked the Peace Path. We talked about art, the environment and politics. We made a connection. Hours later, they left excited, not solely because they had fallen in love with one of my sculptures, but because they had sensed and were moved by all that comprises Windgrove. From the landscape, to the eternal flame, to the wind, to the towering Spiral, to the Drop Stone bench, to the floating eagles, to the piercing light breaking through clouds, to the home brewed coffee, to the 6,000 planted trees and to the messy, somewhat disorganised studio I work in, Lincoln and Suzy had experienced the magic of a place where art and ecology, Chinese medicine and Buddhist philosophy come together in a dialogue for peace.

Unbeknownst to me, Lincoln and Suzy on Monday morning had carried my sculpture to the bridge of the boat and, with several fellow passengers gathered around, they explained to them and the captain what Windgrove was all about and how the two people living there were
devoting their lives, in their own individual small ways, to world peace.

Sitting on the “dashboard” of the captain’s bridge, the spiral sculpture must have beamed a talisman’s energy.

When the little light from the circle at Windgrove flickered across the expanse of Storm Bay and into the ship’s bridge it surely must have touched the hearts and imagination of the many on board who witnessed it.

What else would have caused this great ship to change course?

And herein lies the meaning of this story. The people on board The World are enormously wealthy. They are also multinational, multicultural, enormously aware of the world’s problems and more than willing and capable of helping others. (One of the apartment owners is the Iranian-American woman, Anousheh Ansari, who just spent $20 million to be the first woman tourist and the first Muslim to fly into space.) With all their global travels and certain knowledge and grasp of the inner workings of the political and corporate landscape, it is impressive that a simple concept like Windgrove moved and excited them. The whole direction of their lives might have been altered by this simple flame emanating from a single, small source.

If not lit already, perhaps the eternal flame that burns at Windgrove has now caused something that was lying dormant to be rekindled in these talented people and will motivate them to be of greater service to the world’s poor, to the world’s environment and to seek change for a better, more just world.

That Monday afternoon I stood in the middle of the circle and waved my own “thank you and good-bye”. I felt terribly proud of living in Tasmania and being one of the creators here at Windgrove. I also felt, in no small way, linked to the rest of the world with its global network of activists and philanthropic supporters. Such a family.

What a day.

The letter

The residential cruise liner, The World, featured in the Mercury this morning just came to Roaring Beach on the Tasman Peninsula for a sail-by to express their appreciation for Windgrove and its ongoing commitment to world peace and environmental awareness. With three long toots and one short, the captain and the other passengers said good-bye and thank you.

Seeing this hugh ocean liner change tack and head straight for Windgrove after I flashed it with a mirror was emotionally moving; especially, as it took special permission from the Hobart Port Authority for the boat to change direction. I stood on the point waving good-bye and The World waved back. In that moment, I felt proud being a Tasmanian.

Yes, the people on board The World are enormously wealthy, but they are also multinational, multicultural, enormously aware of the world’s problems and more than willing and capable of helping others. One of the apartment owners is the Iranian-American
woman, Anousheh Ansari, who just spent $20 million to be the first woman tourist and the first Muslim to fly into space.

While at Windgrove and over dinner in Hobart with one of the ship’s couples (who own three apartments on board), we discussed, among many things, why they came to Tasmania and what would bring them back. Emphatically, they said that it was Tasmania’s art, heritage and food culture along with the state’s natural environment that most appealed to them. (They had disembarked from the ship in Devonport and drove down to Hobart.) The branding of Tasmania as a natural and cultural heritage island brought them here. What did not impress them was the continual destruction of our magnificent old growth forests and their conversion into plantations to feed a pulp mill that seriously compromised Tasmania’s branding as a clean, green and intelligent state.