Common Vision Crew 2011 (Photo: Bootstrap)
On Sunday March 20th, the third anniversary of when I first bought Edna, it had just been the longest I’d been apart from her since we met. I know it seems kind of funny for me to make such a big deal about this, but for real, this bus represents the path I am taking my life. The whole free tea project, alternative/sustainable living, everything – Edna represents it all for me. All my spare time, money, and love I have been putting into this project for the past three years. This is why it is so hard to be away from her right now.
The other reason it is so hard to be away from her right now is that I am on other buses – other buses that encompass longtime aspirations of traveling with a community on a caravan of social and environmental change. We’re planting trees, performing, and painting signs at schools with kids, while running on straight vegetable oil, AND I get to make movies about it all. What fun!
This whole caravan, called Fruit Tree Tour, is major inspiration for the free tea bus. Adding different perspectives on everything from alternative energy to life in buses on the road to community living. I’m inspired to take things I have learned, knowledge that has been passed on, wisdom that has been gained, and put it back into the tea bus. Yet, I still have a couple weeks here on the road. Long days of planting, filming, and editing have worn on me.
On Sunday, however, I hosted a free tea party after dinner on the kitchen bus of Fruit Tree Tour. Most of the time on tour I don’t feel like I can afford to spend time doing things other than my duties, but with advanced knowledge of this special day, and a slew of rain and storms that changed our schedule, I was able to steep some herbs for people. I forgot how much people like tea! It had been so wet, cold and stormy that a tea party couldn’t have come at a more appropriate time. Even Leo, Supreme Allied Commander for Common Vision, who thinks that tea causes wars and is an adamant coffee drinker, drank some tea and enjoyed it – although he felt obligated to try and slip in some right-wing rhetoric to play into the “tea party” phrase.
I am so used to being free to make tea for lots of people any time I want; free to go where I please; free to take care of my responsibilities on my own time. This is not how it has been while on tour with Common Vision. This is not to say that it hasn’t been awesome, as it has, but it was good for me to be able to take a break from the office, where I stay so much of the time hunched over the computer editing videos, and bring my energy into the kitchen bus to share with people in a way that I find most satisfying – hot cuppas.
For days after, people kept asking for massive amounts of tea to keep them warm, comfortable, and healthy. Ah, the thing I find most joyous other people also like. I think that everyone who has been on Fruit Tree Tour this year is part of the tribe that I consider close family – those who want to do good for both people and planet. To be with these kinds of people is great! However, I absolutely cannot wait to get back to Edna and serve tea to all the other kinds of people that represent the human race. It wont be too much longer, Edna. I promise.
Oh yeah, and don’t forget to send in your stories of Springtime tea parties held in Edna’s honor!
