Pollinating History:

So, I spent a fair while thinking about what topic I should speak on. It’s a fairly important choice. In the end, I couldn’t really decide, so I started thinking about sub-topics that I could bring up in each topic, and, when I got to Making History, being the daydreamer I am… well, I started thinking about great moments in history.

Now, these are just my thoughts at the time, so I apologise if I miss any. But I thought… what great things have been done in history? The pyramids in Egypt. Machu Pichu. The colossus of Rhodes. The Spartan’s holding off the Persians. William Wallace fighting off the English with his small band of Rebels. The Anzac’s, clinging to the meagre cover they could find, in the first wave to storm into what we know as the Gallipoli campaign.

 So, I thought then, Making History. So surely, these all have something in common, right? And I thought, and I thought, and then I realised something. They do have something in common.

But I’ll keep that secret a little while.

I went on to think about how History is remembered. Books, letters, journals. Painting, carvings, fragments of instruments and tools left behind. And then came the most important question. Because to make something you need a recipe, instructions… you need to know what history is. So I asked myself – What is History?

History, dear fellows, is, as Napoleon put it, “A set of fables agreed upon.” And while you may think I intend to talk about those fables, that is not quite so. For the part of this quote I wish to share is actually a much more common word. Agreed. See, to agree, multiple parties or persons must be present, and that, that(!), is what makes history. An analogy may help explain myself.

If I asked you, what must be done for my tree to bear fruit, what would you say? I would bargain you’d tell me it must be in season, it must be well fed with nutrients from the soil, it’s roots well set, watered enough but not too much, kept in the right amount of sunlight, and given the proper time to mature. But how many of you would speak of the flowers? How many would reply to that question with, ‘A blossom must share it’s bounty with another such flower, and the favour returned, through the assistance of the noble bee’? Few, if any, would.

We wish to make history, and yet, the pen’s ink is blocked, the quill has broken, the paint dried, the chisel chipped, the hammer snapped, the carving knife blunt and the artefacts quickly turn to dust. And that is for a very specific reason. For a flower may be beautiful, but it does not feed the animals below the tree, nor does it drop seeds to continue the tree’s lineage. Flowers are the past, but fruit, fruit is the future! And for that fruit, we need help! We need… the bee.

But that bee is gone, ladies and gentlemen. Fluttered away into the smoky sky, lost to our sight, our ears left ringing without the jovial buzz of their wings. We’ve lost the bee, lost the ability to share our flower’s bounty with others, and in doing so, cursed ourselves and them together to not bear fruit, stripping us of our purpose, tearing away our connections to the world. We cannot provide to those that need to eat our fruit, nor can we spread our seeds so we may continue on, ever remembered. And we cannot pass on the legacy of those who spread the seeds we grew from.

And that bee won’t come back. We’ve got no room left for it, piled its home full of our problems and grievances. Because the bee is too poor, too rich, it’s yellow too bright, too dull. We’re too busy with the specifics to see the whole! It’s like reading the middle page of a book and then rating it on that – you don’t have any of the info, the build-up, or any of the excitement of the finale!

And books, like history, must be written. That is what the bees do for us – they are the writers. The connectors. The sharers, the bearers, the suppliers, the salesmen, and when things go to hell they take the fall. But we’re too far into hell – they’ve fallen too far to get back up, which raises the question of why we don’t throw them a rope. But I’ll answer that question, and I’ll put it bluntly, we’re too busy squabbling with each other to realise it’s needed.

Now I’ve been talking a lot about flowers and bees, and I think it’s time for the big reveal, for the secret I told of has been under your nose the whole time. That bee is a metaphor for what we have lost. Teamwork, that’s what history is, that’s how me make, create, how we forge a path that the ages with remember.

One man didn’t construct the pyramids of Giza. One man didn’t carve the steps to Machu Pichu alone. Do you think rebellions happened from one man alone? And if you don’t believe that you need more than one to be remembered, then let me ask you something rhetorical, would you watch the Olympics if there was only one athlete?

That bee is the willingness to work together, to be together. It’s gone now – a precious few soldier on in its memory, but they don’t still harness it. Don’t believe me? We have people we call friends that we won’t even talk with. We have people we call acquaintances, who we won’t even work with. Families cling to their own ideals, to their own wealth, and drag themselves down into the depths of forgotteness, and they drag all others down with them. Blood is thicker than water, it is true, but we need both to survive.

Take a look at Bill Gates. He has more money at his disposal than most can even dream of, and yet, every year, he sponsors scientists. He’s carrying on in that bee’s memory – money makes the word go round, but people forget that someone had to invent the axel on which it spins, and that someone has to grease the axle.

Those scientists work on cures for diseases. Gates gives them the ability to create, and their creations give others the ability to live. The ability to live branches, to some, the ability to give, others, the ability to create. And eventually, when enough has been created, someone will pick up a pen and write it the hell down! That’s when we’re making history!

We can’t go on like this, people need to understand. But that bee isn’t gone forever. We just need to show it that we’ve still got a place for it! Bloom close to each other, flowers of creation! Share your rootspace, so the path between your pollen is quick. The bees will notice, they’ll return! Sow the seeds of togetherness, and through togetherness, great things will happen! We’ll make the next Machu Pichu! The next Leaning Tower, we’ll cure the next big disease, we’ll invent the next sliced bread! Together, we will make history!