Beautiful Sunday: cutting fallen trees, unblocking dirt road.

The rain storm during the past few days gave made all the fields very green and the weeds very tall. The soil has become very soft, muddy and slippery in some places. The forecast said we could expect more rain so I thought the day would be slow and idle for a change. But the arrival of my gardener disrupted all my plans for a lazy day.

The rainstorm in the night had caused a clump of tall trees collapsing onto the dirt road. So the road was completely blocked. My gardener had to borrow a machete from a villager for cutting down some tree branches so that her bike could pass by. So, after breakfast, we took advantage of the bright day to clear the blocked road of fallen trees and broken branches. (I forgot to take photos of the blocked dirt road).

The damage to those trees told me that the wind must have been very strong, though I hardly heard the windy noises. Luckily nothing serious happened in our garden though small pieces of branches were strewn around big trees. We couldn’t depend on the local authority to help us with proper cutting tools; it would take too long to deal with the bureaucracy. The caretaker of the land was too old and physically weak to handle heavy work requiring muscle strength. So, we had to do the best we could with our simple tools.

I was glad I did invest in expensive cutting tool with extendable rod. My gardener has become very fond of this tool but it seemed to have lost its tightening grip last week. My gardener had been using this tool often, so she had to use rubber strip to tighten the grip together. At the beginning, we didn’t know where to start cutting as the whole bundle of hanging branches looked very dense and covered over ten meters in length.

I had a good look and decided that we should start with those smaller branches at the bottom of the heap. Then we could make some open space for getting closer to the bigger branches. My gardener has started to cut the top branch, hoping that it would fall and break smaller branches down on the ground. I had to stop her action and explained that it wouldn’t work as thick vines were all around these branches. We had to slowly get at the bottom branches and cut all the vines to free these branches for removal.

Luckily my plan worked out very well. Those creeping vines were very thick and tenacious. I had to try to cut all the surrounding vines to free broken branches. The team work and simple tools got along quite well and little by little we could clear the blocked road in over an hour. All the broken branches could become firewood for some villagers nearby. We left them neatly by the fence so anyone could gather them home.

The heat and humidity made me drenched in my own sweat. But it was very satisfying that we could finish this clearing road without asking for extra helpers. So, my gardener has learned to be patient and do things methodically. She tended to be quite hot headed and rushing into dealing with obstacles with raw force. This was the result of having only four years of formal education and having to look after buffalos in the fields by herself as a young kid.

I was quite surprised by this type of character who has simple way of thinking, highly gullible and could be easily victimised by sweet talking local politicians. She told me she used to join other villagers for demonstrations at the townhall in the past. Politicians would order their local opinion leaders to garher villagers from several villages. These villagers would be given special t-shirts and some pocket money. They would go around protesting on pickup trucks shouting slogans with big placards. Some would be recruited for a long haul protest in Bangkok.

I had to explain the various tricks and lies in politics. How politicians used emotional words to sway people’s feelings. My gardener used to repeat all the words and accusations some politicians used to justify their higher moral ground. It took me lots of patience and investigative discussions to spark her brain to think critically for herself. Nowadays she refused to join ‘paid’ demonstrations and realised that she should ask for the evidence or source of the repeated accusations of a third party. I told her not to become a pawn in other people’s political struggles.

The result was that my gardener has slowly become a black sheep in her village. Living among villagers, I realised why all governments continued to keep the majority of people poorly educated. The curriculum and system were designed to produce uniformly passive and docile workers for the industry and factories. The privileged class would attend top schools and universities which produce old school networks of future technocrats, entrepreneurs and politicians. These people will become very successful, wealthy with lots of influences.

My gardener has become more reflective and always reported to me all the terrible rumours and accusations of ‘enemies’ of some foreign-sponsored party. She wondered if all these rumours and bad accusations had any ground. I had to lead her on a logical questioning and reasoning including questioning any likely agenda and motives. In my younger days, I was used by my senior friend at college; I found out by accident that he was an agent with his own troop of ‘private army’ who would catch the ‘enemy’ to be secretly interrogated with violence. That shocked me to the core for I witnessed the ugly side of human nature for the first time. So, I swore to myself never to be used by such hideous and treacherous people again.

Fate seemed to be playing games with me by setting stages for me to encounter several influential people who all wanted to recruit me as one of their teams. I realised that some divine authority was testing my resolve by all these special temptations. My old scholl networks and my ability to get things done efficiently had made me a potentially useful pawn. In the end, I had to fade myself away from all the social scenes to seek more meaningful path. The countryside seemed to offer an alternative lifestyle for being in harmony with nature and spiritual development.

Local villagers and my family thought I was crazy to choose a life of hard work and isolation. I had to learn to adapt to a different local culture and learn to talk like ‘normal’ people. My gardener used to have headaches from listening to my highly logical and formal wording. I was so used to being among professional people with high rankings so their language was very precise and formalised. I needed to experience the difference between life in the city and the ground level in the countryside.

A balanced and relevant education system would be very essential in bringing underprivileged people up to the beneficial levels of critical thinking and self-discovery. But all education systems were designed with hidden agenda and controlled by various foreign-sponsored agents. So, I gave up the hope of having a beneficial reform in our education system. Big fish would continue to eat smaller fish. In the past our education was totally decentralised. Children would go to temples to learn how to read and write. Centralisation was imported into our country after the second world war. That’s how we started to have the twelve grade system of education.

Right now I think it’s too late to try to bring the country back to the heyday of liberating feeling of freedom to choose and hard work always paid. Whereever I looked, I noticed moral corruptions and insurgence by external powers. Many Thai people have neglected Buddhist teachings and become very greedy with materialistic gratifications. These are people of authority and positions so their policy decisions affect most ordinarily people who have no idea about the uitimate goal of the aggregation of many micro decisions.

Various social critiques and academics have given warnings about social upheavals in the near future. Some have predicted widespread protests and possibly civil war. Some have warned against foreign power interference in unrest in the country. I could tell that troublesome times are ahead of us as more money is flowing in from foreign foundations. So, I am very grateful to have a house and garden for longterm self-sufficiency way of life. The two of us could unblock the dirt road of obstacles but to unblock all the obstacles to of our country would require at least 5% of awaken people. I do hope more people will take the red pills and wake up as soon as possible. I continue to hope and pray for divine intervention and protection.

Wishing you peace, good health and prosperity.

Stay strong and cheerful.

#beautifulsunday created by @ace108