Book Review
On my first glance at this book I felt
unsure. It was a big book and it seemed to contain various musings with lots of
pictures. I felt like saying "but where is the meaning?"
I was wrong.
This book is full of meaning.
As soon as I read on the first page "what the
fuck is going on?" I was hooked.
This book is an authentic, heart-felt journey from
a dance and drug fuelled adolescence, moving onto photo journalism, through a spiritual
awakening and finally finding unity through connection with the planet and all
living beings.
One of the themes of the book is that we are living
in a modern day Babylon with disparate languages, cultures, ideas, spiritual
traditions. And this can bring with it confusion and disconnection. Christian
experiences this with all of its highs and lows and then....
In a
moment of devastating epiphany I suddenly see the problem with the core
narrative of our civilisation, this now global Western hegemony that is rooted
in patriarchal monotheism. Unlike the creation stories of the Nimiipuu and most
other indigenous traditions, our myth of origin tells us that we are separate
from the earth out of which we came.
Christian then goes on a journey to find an Earth
based spirituality; for him, Babylon is transformed into planetary unity. And 5
rhythms dancing is something that helps with his transformation.
This book is written with insight and
understanding, by someone who has really thought about who he is and his
response to the world. A key personal insight was a quote from someone called
Adam who said to him: "You are not a journalist, you are looking for the
soul".
In our left brained world
we sometimes look for simple, clear answers to issues. And I don't believe this
always helps when we look at spiritual journeys and meaning. Each of us are a
smorgasbord of instincts, feelings, ideas, background, experiences and more, all
coming together to produce our own unique meaning. And this is book is
Christian's meaning.
Dance on.
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