Structural Adaptation
The ability to adapt is one of the most impressive skills that human beings possess. Over the last several millennia, humans have managed to not only survive, but to thrive on six out of the seven continents. In recent times we have even managed to maintain a presence in Antarctica; one of the harshest and most inhospitable places on the planet. Given proper motivation and enough time, there aren't many situations in which we can't find a way to at least get by, and history has proven that we will usually do much more than that.
Two weekends ago, I had the occasion to be setting up a pavilion for my booth at the Suncoast Renaissance Festival here in Sarasota. This pavilion was a gift, and I was very grateful for one less expense that I had to worry about. As I began putting it together, I became aware that this pavilion, though lovely, was not made to withstand a month-long festival; nor was it sturdy enough to support the curtains that I needed to hang on it to perform the healings and readings that I would be doing inside. Still though, I had the motivation of not wanting to spend several hundred dollars on a commercial grade pavilion, and plenty of time before the festival started. So I donned my best MacGyver mullet and got started figuring out how I could make this free pavilion work. A few zip ties, a curtain rod, a few extra support rods, some duct tape and a fair amount of ingenuity later, I had the pavilion set up at the fairgrounds ready to go for the first of four weekends. I honestly believed at the time that it would be able to stand for the entire festival, and I still think that it could have under normal November weather conditions. It seemed that normal November weather conditions were not to be had, though. Enter Tropical Storm Eta.
About halfway through the first day, the wind started to pick up. It wasn't too bad at first. Nothing that a few more zip ties and some safety pins couldn't handle to keep the curtains from blowing around and knocking everything over. As the day progressed though, the wind got stronger. A few times we heard a crack, snap, or rip and the tent suddenly lurched dangerously. At which point, I grabbed a handful of zip ties and the duct tape, found the damaged area and improvised our way back to stability. The rain started getting pretty heavy later in the afternoon. So we pulled the tables in under the pavilion to save the products, accepted the fact the pennant banner wasn’t going to survive, and toughed our way through the rest of the day. We decided that leaving the pavilion at full height overnight was just asking for trouble. So we dismantled it enough to lower the top to the ground and secure it before making our way home for some much need rest.
The next morning, we raised the pavilion again with extra tools to make the stakes more secure and the ropes tighter. We hung some new signage we’d made to replace the ruined banner. Then I added another set of zip ties all around to reinforce the ones that were already there, duct taped a few more places for extra support, and started the day feeling pretty good about the tent’s chances of survival. But apparently Eta had very different plans for our day. Not long into the morning the wind started to pick up again, and we began experiencing gusts of up to 30 and 40 miles per hour. Zip ties continued to snap and I continued to find ways that everything could be re-done more securely, only to have them break again an hour or two later. We got creative to anchor and weight down everything on the product tables to keep it all from flying away, and once again pulled it all back under cover as the rain returned in force. Eventually, two structural poles of the pavilion started to lose their integrity and began to bend and warp. I found ways to keep them from buckling completely, a strategically placed chair here, attaching to the tent top there, but didn’t have high hopes for how long these would last. By now the whole structure was being held together by little more than zip ties and hope, and as the afternoon wore on it became clear that we needed to do something proactive or we were going to lose the pavilion altogether.
Finally, after a talk with a few of the festival administrators, we implemented one last adaptation. We unpinned, opened, and tied back all the curtains, weighted down anything that might blow away easily, and moved the altar and some other furniture around so the pavilion was open to the air, allowing the wind to pass through more easily. This definitely limited the services that I would be able to perform, but we could still sell products and at least we didn’t have to worry as much now about the pavilion collapsing on top of us or flying away to land on a witch somewhere. That set up got us through the last couple hours… barely. The two poles that had started to give way collapsed completely as we were lowering the top down that evening, but they had made it through the day and the weekend and now I had a week to figure out a new plan for the rest of the month.
I began shopping for a new pavilion on Tuesday, putting out a request to the universe that morning to help me find something solid and stable so we wouldn't have the stress of our shelter disintegrating over top of us, and that I could hopefully use for other fairs and festivals in the future. I found what I considered to be the perfect pavilion for my needs: not too terribly expensive, made to withstand longer festivals, curtains that would support the type of work I would be doing, and it looked really nice to boot. Unfortunately though, none of the companies that sold this particular pavilion had it available in their stores. It had to be bought online and shipped, and the fastest shipping option I could find would have it arriving the following Monday, too late to use for the second weekend.
At this point, I started to get a little worried, not quite knowing what I was going to do. I didn’t want to spend the money on a pavilion that I didn’t want, and I couldn’t get the one I wanted in time. Not willing to give up though, I broadened my search to the private sector and found a woman selling a single tent, the exact brand and style I was looking for, and she was local. We struck a deal and I went to pick up the pavilion that night. I had asked and the universe provided, and I was extremely grateful. I went to the fairground later in the week to set up the new pavilion. It went up well, requiring only a few zip ties, a handful of safety pins, and almost no duct tape to create the modifications needed to adapt the set up. This new pavilion was so much stronger and more stable than before, and even looked a lot better as well. I'm happy to report that it survived the entire weekend. At no point was there any concern or question about its structure or stability, and I look forward to using it for many more festivals to come.
Now it is important to note here that by no means am I attempting to compare my struggles with some wind and a tent to the struggles of our ancestors who found ways to thrive in harsh climates and against extremely adverse conditions. However, I do think it is important to always be very aware of this ability we have to adapt. On one hand, this should inspire great confidence in all that we do. No matter what or how many things go wrong, if we have the proper motivation and time, we will find a way to make any situation work if we choose to. On the other hand, this ability to adapt brings with it an important warning. It has also been proven in history that humans are capable of adapting to very bad or unhealthy situations. If the harsh conditions are worked in slowly enough, small changes that allow disempowerment, oppression, suffering and separation can begin to grow to dangerous levels without us even noticing. Along with this ability to adapt, comes a tendency to be easily lolled into complacency. If you slap chains directly on a person, it’s likely that they will rebel against those chains. If you discreetly and quietly, slowly and steadily, remove freedoms and liberties in imperceptible ways, you can enslave a person more successfully and more thoroughly than you ever could with physical shackles. So herein lies the vital message: Be willing and able to adapt, but be aware of it when you do, and be sure you are only doing this by your choice and for your own health and well-being.
Let me be perfectly clear though. I do not say this to feed into any crazy conspiracy theories or wild accusations of Deep State activities and government mind control. I say this to bring awareness to the rampant oppression that exists in so much of our world. Oppression of one human being over another is a theme that has existed in our culture and societies for hundreds of years, but as we work to move towards a new era; an era of peace, a new vision of the world, and a new structure of our society and our reality, these are the things that we must be aware of. We must be aware so that we can ensure not only that these tactics are not being used on us, but that we are not using them on others; that we are not being manipulated by others, and that we in turn are not doing the manipulating; that we are dedicating our lives, our thoughts, words, and deeds to the uplifting and empowerment of our fellow humans. This new era is worth changing for. This vision is worth acclimating to. This adaptation is how we will create Shamballa and finally have true and lasting peace in this world.
