While building a new raised bed and sweating

Today my video is the exact opposite of that of yesterday. Yesterday I was more in my "gentleman's clothes" and today rather in my "farmer setup", as I recorded it after an intense physical effort of digging a new raised bed in the sunniest area of our garden. 

And if you judge me, Red-Oak, for taking care of the land, do not forget your origins. Do not forget that your father used to love working in the garden, and he continued to do so as long as his back allowed him to. So even if you despise the work of the land, or never got interested in it, it is a well-anchored tradition in your family. And perhaps, you are wrong. Perhaps if you stayed less in your papers, less in front of a screen, a more inside a garden, you would lead a happier life. Perhaps if you were a bit less ambitious, and a bit more authentic in your pursuits, you would find a new balance. And perhaps you would have learnt the meaning of forgiveness by spending more time in nature, and in shaping nature. Taking walks in the forest and giving botany lessons is not enough - it's theory. You need to shape life (vegetal life) with your own hands - that's practice. 

And perhaps Annelies wouldn't have her childhood trauma if you had chosen the right values to guide your life, Red-Oak. I am not saying you are a bad person. You are a good person, in general, but you could be better. And you did some grave faults, with your daughter, and with me afterwards. Those mistakes cannot be disregarded at this stage. That is why you have to endure my daily emails, that is why you need to listen to me, without being able to speak. It is the contrary of what happened six years and a half ago, when you gave me the same kind of treatments that were reserved to slaves two centuries ago. You spoke (badly, very badly, as you lied) and did not allow me to speak. 

Now, you are trapped within your own game, and you have become prisoner of your own silence. I can do almost what I wish to do, I can write almost what I wish to write (within certain limits that I set, as I am a fair person), and still you cannot leave your shell, because you've imposed on yourself this rule of silence, instead of accepting dialogue from the start.

Again, you always thought to know everything, and the rule of silence is something you've learnt, something cultural, something deeply ingrained in you. You believe "if I remain silent, he will get tired and be discouraged."

But you don't know me, Red-Oak. I am in my right, I have been saying the truth from the start, and you have wronged me. So your rule does not work with me. And Annelies is from my side, and she is guiding me. She knows you perhaps better than you know yourself. She knows your qualities, but she also knows your shortcomings. And she is guiding me to tackle those. She is not indulgent toward you. She wants to see a change in depth. She wants justice, first and foremost for herself, over her broken childhood.

Your daughter, Red-Oak, who resembled you so much, has rebelled against you - out of love. She loves you. But she cannot accept the state of fear and confusion in which you plunged her, because of your wrong choices. And she cannot accept your arrogance, of believing you know everything.

This is why you were trapped in this story. Reserving me the kind of treatment reserved to slaves, when slavery was abolished many decades ago, for your information. You should have checked your facts better, Red-Oak. But vanity and cultural and "racial" prejudices caused you to precipitate in this lie and in this mistake. 

Now, as I said, we are in inverted positions. You are under accusation this time. And I am not basing my arguments on lies as you did. The points I am raising are valid. And it is a public "trial". All the friends of Annelies and I can follow it in real time, express their opinion. Everything is done within limits of compassion, respect, dignity. Values you ignored back then, and didn't adopt with me.

But I am better than you think, and better than you were. And despite you disregarding all values of hospitality, of compassion, of giving each person a chance, I will give you a chance, and I will keep on giving you a chance. This means that the day you say "I was wrong, I'm sorry" this story, this public "trial" is over Red-Oak, and we can shake hands and be friends. My attitude and position is constructive, contrarily to yours back then.

I am firm, yes. I am not sending you flowers. My words are blunt, honest, perhaps hurtful in their truthfulness. I have no other choice, as Annelies has a life trauma, which is very difficult to heal, and as you hurt and wounded me six years ago in an almost irreversible way. You will have, Red-Oak, to accept to take the responsibility of what you did.