My neighbour responded to the Waitakere City Council’s offer (pre-Supercity days) to provide trees for streetside berms, if the residents were prepared to do the planting. She called a curbside meeting, invited a representative from the Council and waited in hope. Very few people turned up — just her immediate neighbours, the Council rep and one or two others.

Undaunted, we discussed the proposal and decided to go ahead, hoping to rally more support along the way. We chose the types of trees — mostly tōtara with flowering cherries to accent the street corners — and set a date for the working bee a couple of weekends later.

We met to do the planting. After leafleting mailboxes and erecting a notice at the street entrance, we’d attracted a few more helpers but were still a very small workforce faced with 84 fairly large trees to plant — 84 holes to dig in the clay, many more stakes and burlap ties to put in place, etc.

There had been heavy rain just before we started and more was threatening. As we made planting progress down the street people saw what was happening and came out to help — with kids, dogs, et al in tow.

Inviting to Participate

It is probably a bit of a leap to make comparisons here with Matthew 10:5-13 where Jesus sends out the disciples — after a relatively short preparation time — to go and spread the word and be an example among the towns and villages. But there seems to be a similarity in the underlying expectation of success— despite the odds — if you just get going. The disciples probably understood very little about the reign of God idea and yet they are told to go and shout it from the rooftops while directly engaging in the works of God (curing the sick, healing lepers, casting out devils, even raising the dead!) and relying completely on the locals for resources. They had been instructed not to take supplies such as two tunics or extra money, and, rather than being a problem, this lack of resources actually helped their success. Their poverty became a catalyst for enlisting the help of others. Plus, their success would be all the greater because the locals were drawn into the task.

Calling on Support

We, the streetside tōtara tree planters, also had a bit of a catalyst in our local community task. A little while before our environmental venture, the electoral boundaries in our area changed and we could no longer vote for our current, popular MP in the coming elections.

The new candidate saw our working bee as an opportunity to drum up support and was soon driving up and down our street, loud speakers atop her car, calling out encouragement. Initially our response was: “Talk’s cheap — how about getting out and planting some bloody trees!” And she did!

Shortly she returned in gumboots and got stuck in. She didn’t stay very long but her loud speaker had brought more people out of their houses and, when they saw what the campaigning candidate and the rest of us were doing, many of them joined in the tree planting. Sometimes those who are not against us are for us!

With all these factors working together we finished the job quite quickly, we forged new local relationships and, within a few short hours, we were all enjoying a celebratory BBQ — a bonus in our community building.

Influencing One Another

Much of this would suggest: if you give people choices, and some actively engage in the life-giving choice, most others will be drawn into a similar course of action.

But what if they don’t?

As I write we are in the middle of the COVID-19 lockdown. This unprecedented event has also caused us to think about the importance of choices — both having them and making them. The pandemic is a crisis that has forced governments to make drastic changes but even in this dire situation they were presented with choices. Some leaders (like our own Jacinda) chose the health and well-being of their people over the immediate health and protection of the economy, and moved into lockdown early. They reasoned that, long-term, a healthier population would enable a faster return to economic viability.

Other leaders waited as long as possible, reasoning there would be less economic impact if they kept the wheels of business turning longer and imposed less stringent lockdown restrictions. Time will tell which was truly the choice for life — both human and economic.

Choices for a Healthy Planet

During this pandemic, scientists and others have been quick to notice the beneficial effects COVID-19 (and the measures taken to control it) have had on the planet. While so many of the world’s human inhabitants have been in lockdown, the natural environment has been recovering from the effects of human plunder, overuse and waste.

“Clear skies over Beijing” was a very early headline to appear in world news — a marvellous result of the halt in industrial activity. Air pollution levels around motorways are at an all time low because there are so few cars on the road. We see it in our country. Lincoln Road in Henderson, normally a very busy road 24/7 and a mere carbon monoxide waft away from where our trusty tōtara continue to carry out the air-cleansing task, showed a 65—75 per cent drop in pollutants caused by vehicle emissions.

Similarly, we can only imagine the good that is being done by the massive reduction in airline flights and the pause in businesses that rely on Earth-plundering processes such as mining and deforestation.

Scientists and eco-prophets have been putting healthy planet choices before us for decades and while many at the grassroots have made the “green choice” (pun intended) big business, the fossil fuels industry and most governments have largely failed to take action for the life of the planet. Now it is as though Papatūānuku has said: “You have failed to make good choices so I am taking things into my own hands.”

The words of Deuteronomy 30:15-20 are apt: “See, today I set before you life and prosperity, death and disaster. If you obey the commandments of your God, if you love and follow God’s ways, keeping the commandments, laws and customs, you will live and increase. And your God will bless you in the land which you are entering to make your own. But, if your heart strays and you refuse to listen and are drawn into worshipping other gods — I tell you today you will not live long in the land …

I call heaven and earth to witness against you today: I set before you life or death, blessing or curse. Choose life then, so that you and your descendants may live in the love of your God.”

All but one of our tōtara survived and are flourishing today. I wonder whether a post COVID-19 planet will fare so well? If our choices for life continue, we can live in hope.

Bruce Drysdale is a teacher, marriage celebrant, florist and chaplain in Auckland.

Tui Motu Magazine. Issue 248 May 2020

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