Walk with me

In a few days I will start a long walk from Spain to Paris. I will be on the road for two months, wearing the three piece walking suit I have been wearing since January, carrying everything I need on my back. I am walking to the United Nations Climate Chance Conference (COP21), to join thousands of people for a march through Paris which is called “the largest civil disobedience action on climate change in Paris”. On my way there, I will meet people on the road, talk with them, listen to their stories. Any stories.

 

My themes will be ecology, simple and slow ways of being, consumerism, history, humanism. Love and life and death, in small and big ways. I will write about it on my blog, I will leave and collect traces. It will be an adventure and I’d like you to be part of it as much as the people on the road and the people I will walk with in Paris will be.

 

I need your support, whatever you have/want to offer. And I am not talking money. Tips, advice, inspiration sources, people on my route you think I should meet, places I should visit, where to sleep and what to eat. Money ....  comes in handy too, but my journey will be about exchange in any possible way, getting away from materialism and easy ways to go through life.

 

Whatever you’d like to share with me, I will give you something in return. Equal value. Something material or immaterial. I will make you part of my journey. Not because I can’t do it on my own but because I don’t want to do it on my own. The only way to change things is to work together, because we are in it together no matter what.

I’ll build you a boat, you’ll be part of the fleet that will carry me to Paris. Over land.

(boats from trash i found in my garden)

Here’s what I’ve got to offer:

 

* Stories. They will be online. They can be shared.

 

* My attention. If you are on my route, I’d love to spend time with you. Or you can come along and walk with me.

 

* A small boat. I will fold them on my way, like children do, using the discarded materials of our culture, breathing life back into what has been left behind, slowly building a big fleet to bring me to Paris, vessels to help me reach my destination. Every one of them will be dedicated to somebody who is helping me on my journey in any way. 

 

I’ll exhibit the fleet in Paris and I will send you a digital image of your boat and the full fleet, or:

1. if you want your boat, send me some money so I can snail-mail it to you afterwards, a few euro’s will do the job already. 

2. If you want to share a day with me as well, send me the minimum of €15 I know by experience I need to "survive" (some days I sleep and eat wild but other days there are unexpected expenses) and choose a day inbetween Oct. 14 - Dec 10 or leave the date up to me and I will think of you on that day and take a photo especially for you which I will send you by email from the road (and the boat will be send to you later).

 

3. But if you want to donate more (let’s say € 25,- or more) I can also offer you a professional photo paper print (A4, limited edition) of the full fleet in Paris & a digital photo I will take especially for you on my journey on any day you’ll choose (Oct. 14 – Dec. 10) which I’ll be sending to you by e-mail from the road (and I’ll be thinking of you). Plus a boat of course.

 

There’s a paypal button on my blog (top right) and if you have any questions or comments, send a mail to monique.besten@xs4all.nl

 

If I get more money in than I need, I’ll use it to send everybody who helped or inspired me in any way a boat by slow mail. It would be great if afterwards all of them will be all spread around the world.

 

Still the best support I can get is if you read my stories here and keep an eye on me in that way. It will keep me safe and sound.

* It will take a bit longer before you will receive your “physical” boat and the photo print.

(2005, At Home Galery, Now Here)