Heads at the Little Big Farm. 0.

Beginning the Great Work.

Preface:

A word or three first.

A warm welcome to new subscribers and a hearty hello to old! Time for fiction which unites all the various strands of my thinking and writing here on Substack. Or is it that all the various strands of my thinking and writing here on Substack arise from the fiction?

For those who are not interested in fiction, that is totally fine (obviously!), simply ignore or delete the episodes. I will be continuing with my usually writings on The Real Coed Y Brenin, permaculture design and the like, interspaced with the fiction.

For those who enjoyed the previous strand of Konsk, great! Please feel free to comment and otherwise feedback on this next one. For those who missed the earlier strand, you can find some explanations and a partial list of chapters here.

So, Without further preamble, today I release into the wild another thread in the meta-pata-fiction, Konsk, namely, Heads At The Little Big Farm. I'm sending out three chapters in quick succession for those who wish to get stuck in. I hope you enjoy it.

Heads at the Little Big Farm.

0. Beginning the Great Work.

In the Land and Time of the Fair Family, in the Grove of The Twelve Trees, each one a song, a key to the ways of the forest, there arose at last a strong feeling that a beginning should be made. This came after a long period of reasoning involving many gatherings of the various interwoven groups that formed the family, both human and non-human. Within and between these groups, there was a sharing of thinking, out loud, together, that often used the medium of song and dance.

During that experience of thinking together, objections were voiced, though not in this language, of course;

“The information is incomplete, fragmented! So no firm conclusions can be generated, surely?”.

But there was insistence,

“Enough material had been gathered to at least make a valid start. Certainly, with the passage of time, more will accrue, yet further delay merely allows the danger to increase. It would be better to act now, wouldn't it?”

Smiler chose to give voice to this simple statement, “In the world, this is always the only option.”

He went on to emphasise the point, asking, “How is it possible to act at all, if not now?”

But there were further objections that were not limited to mundane language. These included consideration of where lay the root of the madness,

“Is it indeed something inherent in The Really Heavy Now, or does it lie here, with the family, embodied in the dreaming Erak?”

Erak was startled at the sound of this, his original name.

It was a valid and difficult concern. However, Twm¹ elected to voice the obvious and conveyed something akin to the following;

“Only one way ta find out, dood.”

Or something along those lines, though he did not use the word system of communication.

Towards the ending of the time of the discussion group, there was a return to the challenge posed by later, unexpected material arising and invalidating the work; how could this be resolved?

Then the Grade Eleven Gardener, Dôn², spoke for the family.

“The work will be supremely flexible and capable of containing everything.”

Rather than further objections, her saying inspired instead great amusement; Twm strode about demonstrating a work capable of containing everything, holding his arms out as though supporting an enormous belly! All the youngsters howled and shrieked in amusement and Smiler re-enacted one of the first jokes by falling off his log; that sparked everyone off again.

When all the laughter had died away, Dôn continued,

“There should be a concern for the patterns which generate detail,” she reasoned, “rather than for detail in itself.”

She spoke carefully. All gave good attention, for all acknowledged her authority, she being the Family Gardener³.

“In the world of The Really Heavy Now, Konsk is become fragmented and forgotten. A Great Remembering is required, thus it will be necessary to communicate The Strong Message to those with the ears to hear.

“There,” she concluded, “With this decision, the beginning is made. Now there can be no further objections.”

All joined in making the hearty stamp of agreement, including the dreaming Erak who began to tremble; Twm provided a kindly comfort, laying an arm across his shoulders.

The preparations had already been made. The Traveller Elect was led into the centre of the circle and lay down upon a matt of reeds. The dancers began to circle and Dôn took up the song of the Dream Journey Through Time.

The Traveller Elect was given his new name, to take with him into The Really Heavy Now. Erak burst into tears, for he knew the ending of this journey and how ill prepared was the Traveller for the mighty task before him.

Patterns began to form within the flow.

1. The w in Twm stands as a vowel, somewhere between Tum and Tomb

2. The accent over the o in Dôn lengthens the vowel.

3. Family Gardener is a weak attempt to convey something like clan-crop-mistress-shaman-witch.