...And We Will Have Snow

Chapter 3-10: The Knife-Edge

Later, Bear is in Xayna's bed. She is snuggled against his side, his arm drawing her to him. With each breath he inhales the wonder of her presence, the exotic excitement she has brought into his life. The profound joy he experiences in every moment spent with her is like nothing else he has ever known. It is a never-ending shaman dream that peaks each time their bodies and spirits entwine, as they did moments ago, but does not subside. He had not known this was possible. Now he does. Now he begins to understand the fulfillment that people everywhere can achieve.

He knows this is what he came here for. But it is larger than he had imagined. Ghandl's words earlier about the sharing of the shaman dream have stayed with him. He ponders them now, blending them with what he knows of Tengri's vision. Excitement builds in him as this combined vision begins to blossom.

Xayna senses this and asks him, sleepily, "What is it?"

"It's what we were talking about earlier, and what your father said. I finally know why I am here."

"What do you mean? We both know you are here to be my spirit guide."

"And you mine. What I mean is, you have guided me to a special place, and Ghandl has guided me to an understanding of what is special about it. Now, from this new place, I am seeing what uncle Tengri wanted me to see."

"And what is that?" she asks, still sleepily.

"You have shown me that the Haida live on the knife-edge of the world, between sky, sea and forest. Haida are truly at home only on this edge where balance is essential. For the Haida, this edge is an appearance only, for from it the entire spirit realm is open to them."

Bear pauses to let this line of thought develop. At his pause, Xayna speaks dreamily. "Life on the edge is temporary, but return to it is usual, for the very sharpness of the edge is its attraction."

Warming to this aspect of their shared dream, she continues. "At the junction of sky, sea and forest one can have all three at the same time. It is perilous, but idyllic. We accept the peril to witness the beauty. Or we risk the peril to experience the thrill.

"The peril is mild for one who is watchful. Food is plentiful, so survival is not hard. The potlatch custom encourages those who experience good fortune to share their wealth, not hoard it." Xayna grows quiet as this vision fills their dream.

Bear too is quiet for a bit, but Xayna can sense his musing. Finally he says, "Now I see how much like your island is the dream Tengri created on our island. There the Sun Bottle powers the Farm Bottle, and the Supercomputer monitoring the Farm assures survival. This is the Sun Dome dream, and it succeeds as long as the people are attentive to their own routine needs and keep their demands on the system in balance with what it offers.

"On our island this is easy, for there are not many of us and we all know how it works. In a big Sun Dome there may be a thousand people, and maybe none of them really know how it works. This sharpens the edge and dulls the dream.

"Now I see that an ideal Sun Dome culture would be much like the Haida culture of old, with shaman storytellers helping to keep everyone alert to the needs of the community and the system as a whole.

"The shaman ideal is balance, living for self within the bounds of respect and appreciation for the support of others, reciprocating that support.

"Like Haida Gwaii, a Sun Dome is as sharp as a knife. It is a perilous balancing act. It fills a great need, and there has been great success with deploying them to places where the need is greatest, where people will fully appreciate the gift.

"But in other places, where the need is not so great, it is easy for people who live in them to relax their vigil, exactly because the operation is so automatic. Then things can begin to go wrong in a Sun Dome community. Parts of the system may fail, and not be repaired. Instead the people simply revert to old ways and get along the best they can, even moving out of the Sun Domes and onto the surrounding land."

"A Sun Dome, like our Haida Gwaii, is a small version of the big world, isn't it? It needs to remain complete in itself to function as we have come to expect." She turned her head to look at him when she felt but did not see his nod.

"It is a self-contained entity, like an animal within its own skin."

"Or like a mini-Gaia?"

"Yes, a small reflection of the spirit of Earth itself. "

"So like any life form, it can be viewed as an entity unto itself, or a culture comprised of the entities within it, down to the level of cells." She was watching now and saw his nod.

"The problem has been, how can we bring these people to understand what is needed to maintain a Sun Dome culture? Old habits die hard. In the modern world, even with frequent reports of disaster for others, many people have no sense of vigilance. They expect life to be easy. Even after experiencing themselves the life-changing disaster of losing everything and being moved to a Sun Dome, they quickly revert to their old expectations when they find that once again all their basic needs are taken care of."

"And this is the problem you have solved." Xayna levered herself into a sitting position facing him, waiting for him to continue. Bear, too, scooted himself more upright, but he did not continue immediately. For a moment he was silent again, composing his thoughts.