explorer

When the door closed behind Jack, Alice wanting to punch something and everything while also wanting to curl up and weep. What a mess! Bloody human nonsense!
Shaken, she went to her bathroom and put her head under the cold water. She had tried to rebuild the Jack-crush-prove shield. And failed. Tried again. And failed. Over and over again. Whenever she had moments of thinking they were OK, mostly during workouts, something would happen, and she would be frustrated again, frustrated with her own inner nonsense. By now, she just wanted to forget Jack. Maybe talking would be good. She had nothing to lose. He was obviously angry with her or disappointed or something. Why did Jack care? Did he gain anything from being her friend? Was this some kind of publicity stunt? Why couldn’t he just keep his distance? Like he had. Why had he talked to her on Halloween but not once in the previous two weeks? Why now? If he needed something from her, he could just ask and be done with it.
Alice turned off the water. She didn’t have time for this.
But tonight it would be over—
‘—Are you okay, Alice?’
What?
Nanda, the head of the Brazil Team, asked again and closed the office door behind her.
Water dripping from her short hair, Alice nodded. ‘Yeah, just need to clear my mind.’
‘Oh,’ Nanda said with a twinkle in her eyes. ‘Do you have holes in your skull so the water can get in there?’
Alice rolled her eyes. ‘Nope. Nanda, I’d love to chat. But I need to be one of those annoying people, today, who stick to the points we have on the list.’
‘Well, you don’t look that good. White lips and all. I’ll insist on making you a tea while you hit me with your list.’
‘I would never dare hit you, Nanda.’
‘Because you’re afraid I’d breathe fire?’
Alice smiled, towelling off her hair. ‘Precisely.’
Nanda made a soothingly sweet tea and patiently answered all of Alice’s questions on hospital procedures. She stayed longer because she was curious about a discussion Renshu, head of the China Team, wanted to introduce: the Hub and systemic poverty. Lydia, the head of the Australia Team, was early for her appointment and listened in until Renshu and Nanda left. Alice and Lydia talked about how to address racism heads-on in town.
‘I guess it’s more than just digging deep to find the roots of racism,’ Lydia remarked. ‘It might also be necessary to create rituals which allow us to grieve the damage done and to learn to connect as humans.’
Alice nodded. ‘Could your team take the lead on this discussion for all our teams?’
‘Yes.’
Not much later, Ethan, head of the town planners, Ming (China), Till (Berlin), Bertok (Budapest) and Drisna (Mumbai) arrived for their appointment.
Lydia left, and the five town planners took their seats on the sofas. Over the next half an hour they discussed the town’s Central Avenue.
‘To summarise,’ Disna (Mumbai) said, ‘Central Avenue will be the broadest street in town until it reaches Central Square, curving from the Main Gate to the other side of town. The avenue has seven distinct sections: buildings on both sides (section one and seven), some are apartment houses, like those built in twentieth century in Europe, others belong to a Yards complex or an educational square, the General Hospital, our smaller theatre and the like. Sections two and six are for pedestrians. Sections three and five have three lanes for traffic: a wheelchairs lane, a bicycle, skater and scooter lane, and a waggons and horses lane. Section four, the central strip is a promenade with trees, bushes, benches, pavilions which invites people to go for a stroll while the lanes left and right are busy with traffic. The central strip is for everyone who has time: walkers and wheelchair users, parents with children, slow horses.’
Bertok (Budapest) smiled at Alice who was frowning. ‘You are wondering how people move between the sections.’
Alice smiled back. ‘I already moved on to wondering what animals will make of the central strip, whether it’s too noisy for them and, yes, how they will leave the strip. Though, I guess they could just run back to the Main Gate and hope it’s still open.’
The others chuckled, and Ethan said: ‘I have a meeting with Megan next week to discuss measures which allow for easy animal and seed movements. We already have a few ideas: animal tunnels below lanes, occasionally raising the street on a walkway so that animals can move below the road, and narrow, animals only bridges.’
‘That sounds goods. So how do humans get to the strip? Or how does a waggon reach the pavement without running over a bike or a wheelchair?’
Bertok (Budapest) smiled. ‘We have a roundabout at each intersection of Central Avenue with one of the circle roads. Parking areas and stops for the transport services, waggons and bicycle taxi, are connected to roundabouts. Furthermore there are likely to be several bridges and a few tunnels.’
Ming (China) nodded. ‘I suggest a high-speed bicycle lane walkway, running alongside the treetops of the central strip, with connections to the roundabouts.’
Till (Berlin) nodded. ‘We are also thinking about taking the stilt house ideas a step further and build some of them as part of the central strip. Maybe one will cross all parts of Central Avenue.’
Ming (China) smiled. ‘Lunch trees could be a feature on the central strip.’
Alice chuckled. ‘Plus some breakfast swings and a few supper corners.’
Ethan frowned. ‘It might be interesting to experiment with this. Test whether the strip is more beneficial as a food mile or as a simple walk mile through the heart of the town.’
Alice twitched the corner of her mouth. ‘Walk mile sounds great. Yes, let’s test that. And maybe the avenue can have different faces at different times of the months. Like a festival week, a lunch tree week, a silent walk week.’
Ethan and Alice smiled and bumped their fists together.
‘Can we squeeze in a piano week?’ Bertok asked, smiling.
Alice nodded. ‘Pianos along the strip and anyone can play, except for the times when our musicians give their concerts. Yes, I like the idea of giving the central strip a solid foundation, trees, nature, benches, resting, a slow pace. And every now and again, it gets to become something else: a place filled with music, a place filled with the smells of delicious foods, a place for the high concentration of the chess players. But it always returns to its own inner core, a green river running through the heart of the town.’
There were several nods and smiles.
‘And here is another thought. We’ve talked about providing options for climbing.’ Disna (Mumbai) chuckled. ‘Yesterday, we initiated a challenge to create an unobtrusive climbing route from the Main Gate to Central Square. We already have a number of intriguing suggestions. Troy, the Art Team’s amazing illustrator, created a route which zigzags Central Avenue making use of walls, trees, bridges, pavilions and swings.’
Alice smiled. ‘What about rainwater?’
Till (Berlin) handed Alice a printout. ‘Central Avenue can deal with several hours of heavy rainfall. Though our biodegradable pavement will start suffering at some point. We will store rainwater, especially as part of the bridges and on the roofs of pavilions, and we are thinking about underground storages as well.’
Alice nodded. ‘Biodiversity?’
‘Will depend,’ Ming (China) said. ‘Like you mentioned earlier, the level of noise on Central Avenue might deter many animal species, and plants need the interaction with animals to thrive. Dana, head of Ecology and Agriculture, has a small team researching whether a network of smaller, protected wild areas within the town would be positive for the overall biodiversity including the avenue.’
‘That sounds interesting. And here comes a completely different question, which is more of an architecture question. Is there something like an overall design for Central Avenue?’
Ethan nodded. ‘Yes, Central Avenue has a consistent design where even contradicting elements are brought together, says my friend Jason, and I think he and his team can make it happen.’
Alice smiled.
They talked a little longer because Mika, the head of the Berlin Team, was late for her appointment. Mika brought a loaf of chewy wholegrain bread and quark with linseed oil and chive, a kind of sour cream. ‘I baked it myself, and I mixed the quark myself as parting gift. The bread is still warm. I brought a breadboard and a knife.’
Alice smiled broadly, and they each had a thickly spread slice of deliciously warm bread while discussing the Berlin Team’s central role in connecting the project to Europe, both with respect to the project businesses and regarding the future town.
‘Or towns,’ Mika said. ‘I admit I was a bit sceptical about building a single town. It sounded like one of these prestige projects that are just for a select few and have no connection to the real world—’ Mika chuckled, seeing Alice’s raised eyebrows. ‘I know. The real world doesn’t exist. Everything around us is invented. Except the ingenious natural world. Which reminds me: Could it be that humanity simply went through puberty over the last millennia, and that’s why it rejected nature’s perfections and had to do everything better than its parents?’
Alice laughed. ‘That’s a thought!’
Mika grinned. ‘What I wanted to say is, a single town felt cheesy, but a whole network of towns, towns in different countries, each with their own focus and purpose, each a piece of unique art, each perfect for their kinds of people, each a breathing, living organism which keeps evolving — now, that’s something I could talk about for weeks.’

last updated: 25 January 2025

‘The sun bathed the balcony in a cool light.
Alice was wrapped up warmly, sitting in a wheelchair, a steaming cup of tea in her hands.
Kahu sat on the railing, reading aloud: ‘As I thought about trees, I tried to imagine being a tree, starting as a small sapling, wondering whether to focus on the roots or whether growing tall was the priority. And suddenly I thought, it’s strange that trees grow at all and all the time and in all directions. I wonder whether they really have any priorities. It seems, they just grow. But why? And I thought that a tree might be a good image to explain to young people what growing and getting older is about. It doesn’t mean you are stupid as a child. A sapling or a young tree isn’t stupid. In fact, it’s the heart, the core, the beginning, the foundation of the growing tree. Everything else wraps around that beginning. Everything that happens adds layers and new branches, and, yes, that will change what you look like and it will shape your views and understanding (if you are a living and wise tree). But it won’t make you better or more valuable or any such linear attribute. Growing will extent you, both in size, strength and regarding the amount of branches and leaves and fruits which will be a part of you. If you grow in a healthy way, you will have more to give at every stage of your life. But that doesn’t devalue the first apple that was ever yours to give. — It was beautiful to imagine to be a tree, but it didn’t get me to sleep.’
Kahu looked up from her thick notebook.
Alice smiled. ‘Beautiful.’
‘There is more. I call the collection Views from around the universe.’
Alice chuckled.
‘It’s a joint project with some friends. And as you know, there is, of course, life on other planets.’
Alice laughed, wincing.
‘But …’ and here Kahu flicked to the first page of her notebook and read: Oh, planet Earth!
We owe so much to you.
Without the abundance 
Of the mistakes you make,
Where would we be?
Where would we go? 
To learn. 
How not to act?
But the time of selfish indulgence in your failings is drawing to an end since our best thinkers have urged us to share some of our insights with planet Earth so that we might not be complicit in the downward trends of your planet.
And while we are not ready yet to meet you face to face, we hope that our thoughts will bring you joy and maybe even some wisdom, health and happiness.’
Alice smiled.
‘Sometimes I have incomplete thoughts that interest me,’ Kahu added. ‘And I add those as fragments that are allegedly found on different planets. Those fragments are held in high regard, like the tree fragment. No one knows who the authors are. Generations have tried to guess what was written before and after a fragment. This way, I can keep playing with an incomplete thought.’
‘I like it …’ Alice said, letting her mind drift.
It was a cold day, but the sun warmed her face and something in her hungrily soaked up whatever the sun was setting in motion on her skin. Eliza had forbidden visitors and said that Alice should rest after the transport from the hospital. The first visitor who made it past Jazz had been Andy who said he bribed Jazz. Andy had helped Alice into the wheelchair, made them tea and wheeled her onto the balcony. The fresh air! The sun! Great! After days in hospital.
Andy had been just about to leave, having promised Jazz not to stay for more than an hour, when Kahu’s head appeared above the balustrade of the balcony, followed by her whole body which shortly afterwards dropped onto the balcony.
‘Can I use your balcony for my next visit?’ had been Andy’s reaction.
Alice smiled at the memory and let the pleasant sensation of the sun on her skin fill her. After a moment, she asked: ‘Kahu, is there a story about why some people feel such a hunger for sunshine and bathe in it for the pure sensation of being touched by its beams?’
Kahu smiled and flicked through the notebook. ‘There aren’t many stories in this collection, yet. Most entries are short statements from different planets. Though on some subjects the universe agrees unanimously.’
‘Such as?’
‘The human.’
Alice chuckled, waiting for more.
‘The human is weird,’ Kahu obliged. ‘Ah, here it is: Views from around the universe. Sun, the. The sun brings day, enables life and takes it. Humans on earth don’t take enough care to understand the sun and their dependence on it. Next entry. On our planet we embrace the sun as our silent guide. We rise with it, we rest with it, we celebrate all it makes possible, and we mourn what it destroys. Next entry. We lost our planet to the sun, because we carelessly believed we were superior to everything around us and that we had no need to learn, understand and nurture. We are very grateful to the planets of the universe who gave portions of our people a new home and much learning. But we are lost. Our planet is lost. We hope that earth will not follow our example. Next entry. Though this is still a bit sketchy. Why are the sun and the blue sky so positive for the human’s mood? And why does a grey sky depress? Does this indicate a connection between humans and the natural world: flowers, trees, grasses? A legacy of some common roots? Or does the body know it needs the sun to produce vitamin D? Or is this about the fact that the warmth feels good, and therefore the lack of sun registers as an unfulfilled need? Maybe the body could learn that the human has no control over the sun. If it did, could it stop reacting to this need? Or should the longing for sunshine inspire us to act like migrating birds, always moving to where the sun shines? What if a nomadic lifestyle is not only more natural but also healthier? What is the good of the settled human?’
Alice wanted to applaud, but a thought was prodding her and got ahead of the praise. ‘What does it say under attack?’
Kahu looked grim. ‘Attack equals cowardice.’ Kahu returned, thumbed through her notebook and opened it close to the beginning. ‘An attack is the failure, both in personality and in action, to communicate, to seek and find common or new ground, to acknowledge that everything is a question of seeking understanding and of seeking solutions devoid of ideologies but tested and evaluated for their use. Next entry. An attack can be the result of a prolonged power imbalance, and often happens when the suppressed lashes out, fed up with the dominant power. In such cases an attack is the failure to balance powers and to avoid dominance. Next entry. An attack is the failure to try to understand what it is that makes us angry and to ascertain that our anger is justified. But even if anger is justified, there are usually better ways to deal with it than an attack. Next entry. An attack is often the result of a single, rather harmless thought, getting into the minds of sloppy thinkers, and as those find each other, they talk themselves into having to deal with someone or something decisively. Though, true decisiveness would never result in an attack but in seeking to resolve whatever stirred discontent or disagreement. Next entry. An attack is the failure to recognise that no form of violence will ever deliver a viable solution. Next entry. An attack indicates that a person, persons or a group have not acquired the skill and courage to face a conversation and to seek mutual understanding and mutual ways forward. In humans on earth we have observed an impatience to think and a tendency to avoid thinking and productive confrontation. Instead they lash out (physically or verbally or both) or resort to silence and keep anger and hatred and the lack of understanding well nurtured. The latter is often employed as a means of painting oneself as the one who knows, and moreover the one who knows better.’ Kahu stopped reading and looked at Alice.
Alice grimaced. While listening her frustration had intensified about— a lot, including the attack on her, Dennie and Patrick. And that must have shown on her face, because Kahu said: ‘There is more. But you should rest.’
‘Kahu, I keep hitting the wall.’
Kahu grimaced and Alice added: ‘I feel like I am at least partly responsible for the attack. And your snippets say that, too. But then I think that we are transparent and our motive is to work for people not against them. Kahu, I keep hitting the wall.’
Kahu slipped to the ground and squatted in front of Alice, her hand on Alice’s: ‘The attack is not your fault. That people are confused is the work of so-called decision-makers who have screwed with us for decades. It’s not your fault. Take some more rest. Get your strength back. And then — maybe we could try to find a door.’

© Charlie Alice Raya, book 3/3, shaping, where do we go from here & decisions