THE ARK OF HOPE AS SYMBOL, VESSEL,  EMBODIMENT OF THE EARTH CHARTER.
Diane Gayer

The Ark embodies the Earth Charter not only because it contains a hand-written copy of it on paper made from papyrus grown in a “living machine” in Vermont. (What’s a "living machine" you ask? --picture a series of large tanks full of exotic plants and micro-organisms treating waste and sludge in full bio-dynamic splendor.) But the Ark embodies the Earth Charter not only because of how it was conceived and made from a sustainably-harvested sycamore tree, but because of how it affects each of us very directly through its beauty and inspiration. For example the Ark is full of Temenos Books made by artists, children, and citizens each offering prayers of love, compassion, and global healing--compelling all to continue by adding their own thoughts and hopes to the collection.

The most magical part of the Ark is how the Earth Charter principles of respect and care for the community of life, ecological integrity, social and economic justice, democracy, non-violence and peace infiltrate your being without even reading the text.The very nature (size and weight) of the Ark asks for a team of people to move it, an individual alone cannot transport it--this begins the cooperative consciousness that leads to working together on any level.Imagine six to eight people carrying the Ark, not stepping on each others feet or dropping the vessel as it is carried ten long-blocks through NY streets in the pouring rain with four to six people holding a blue tarp overhead and another contingent of walkers following as support persons carrying long bamboo poles drapped with banners of the principles.And then switching roles and positions as any individual needed.Yes, this was teamwork but it was more than that--unrehearsed, unformated-- it was an example of what biologists call the ability or principle of self-organization. It is how geese fly across the sky.How did we learn it, we didn’t.We just formed and reformed as needed.

The Earth Charter principles are not abstract when we understand them directly on our own scale, on the scale of individual or community participation. By walking and handling the Ark and the Temenos Books, we are involved in the hands-on caring for objects of beauty and prayers of hope, this cannot be done lightly,  these works have been entrusted to us. The intent of the Ark is to evoke joy and faith and reponsibility for all sentient and non-sentient life. This plays out in so many ways from the discussion and adoption of the Earth Charter principles at town meetings across Vermont to the installation of the exhibit at the United Nations building in New York. Coming together at four AM, driving six hours to the city, installing 54 book holders with ribbons and velcro on twelve display panels, identifying which Temenos books belong where, finding missing hardware, meeting kind and generous people, being sniffed by anti-terrorist guard dogs, setting up an oriental rug for the ark platform, all in a day, was not done by individuals but a conjoined energy of beings with a unifying strength--the belief in a peaceful world.The Ark allows us to hope--even better, to become part of making it happen at any and all levels-- within our families, our communities, our regions, and our united nations.It is a grassroots embodiment of global healing, compassion, and empowerment.

Learn more about the Earth Charter: www.earthcharter.org and www.ark-of-hope.org.