The Potential

I woke up int my bed in my dorm room after a day full of happy Guilford life and found myself telling a story about my time at the protest to someone I lived with, love, and miss from Embercombe. It is good story and one I want to remember so I am going to share it here:
August 10th - my second full day at the protest was the only time I put myself intentionally in a position where I could have gotten arrested. Arrested for dancing... I made a solid mental note of the female copper's badge number that said "you will not get arrested for dancing" to Jesse and I because it was in the air that the cops were planning on moving in, possible kettling us (surrounding us so no one can go in or out) and arresting us all. Legal observers were present. Tammy made eye contact with me and handed me a busk card (I think it what it is called): a business card with important telephone numbers on it - arrest support and the suggested solicitors phone number. When she handed it to me I could see in her eyes that she did not want me to get arrested but that she was not going to stop me from dancing there. When the dancing first began the cops were saying not to dance there and saying anyone dancing here could get arrested and at first I found myself shimmying out of the crowd and to somewhere where I was not at risk of getting arrested, after about 5 minutes I found myself back in the loving dance group. Patty was happy to see me - she knows I love dancing and noticed I wasn't there. Right as Tammy handed me the card that really felt like arrests were going to happen soon I was next to Jesse and asked him if he wanted to be crowd buddies. He said yes :) We were in similar positions we wanted to put our full selves into the protest and protect the earth even if that mean getting arrested while also realizing that what we want to do may be hindered if we have an arrest on our records :( I am pretty sure at some point in my future I could be/will be/(am already being) an educator - and I think educating people is one of the most important things, and not worth potentially throwing out the window in my case for trying to make a statement about frackng (right now in my life at least). I am not 100% comfortable with that, but that was my mind set at the protest and I am glad I did not get arrested. Jesse is a nurse, really enjoys it, and has done a lot of training to do what he is doing now and doesn't want to throw it all away. So... we were buddies in a similar mindset: we want to have fun and it is ok to be a little risky, but we do not want to get arrested. We kept an eye on each other whether that meant dancing next to each other and or making eye contact every few minutes amongst the crowd.
At first it was incredibly stressful dancing knowing that any minute I could get grabbed by a cop and I was definitely on guard while trying to look like I was not so that the cops would know that we were just comfortably dancing. Towards the middle I forgot that I was at risk of getting arrested even though I was basically surrounded by cops (shows how quickly I adjust...). When the music stopped, the dancers cheered (and started passing around bottles of water), and the musicians started packing up - Jesse and I exchanged words about how incredible that was and how good it felt.
On Sunday night I was talking with James and I caught myself telling him that I think I am going to go in the road tomorrow when the lorries come (that is something that risks getting arrested). It was going to be my last day and I really wanted to give before I left the protest site (I know there are many ways to give but I wanted to do something to slow down the fracking.) Before my alarm clock could go off I heard the bell being rung and someone calling out lorry. I lay in bed, comfortable, warm, cozy, and sleepy, wondering if this was the one. I opened the tent door a bit to see what the scene looked like (to see if I wanted to join) and heard protesters (including Patty right at the front line)yelling "do not push!" I could see this was a really aggressive batch of police - the nice ones had been rotated out. I decided to not join this one and wait for the next one. I lay back in bed feeling a bit guilty but also like I was making a wise decision. When I was eating breakfast I learned that someone got arrested during the first lorry. The cops picked them out, moved in a way that singled them out and nagged them before other protesters could protest them. It was the large woman with the dog. About 2 hours later I heard talk of someone else getting arrested and just after lunch Tigger got arrested... It was a rough last day. When I was sitting around the fire pit eating dinner I still wasn't sure if I wanted to stay another night or leave on my planned last day. Glad I stayed that extra night, though by the time I left it really was time to leave. So a quick story (what a surprise)  got wordy and long, but it is important to me