The Year of the Flood

Adam One addresses the Gardeners concerning recent events. He warns them that “malicious rumors can spread confusion” (191) and urges them to forgive Burt, Veena, and Bernice, and “put Light around them in [their] hearts” (191), as they are no longer with them.

Adam One then reminds everyone that on this day they celebrate Mole Day, and with their decorations made from everyday objects testify “to [their] God-given powers of creativity, through which even the useless and discarded may be redeemed from meaninglessness” (192).

Adam One encourages his fellow Gardeners not to neglect the smallest creatures that live among them, because “every one of [them] is a Garden of sub-visual life forms” (192). He emphasizes the importance of all creatures—the earthworms, the ants, and the maggots—because they’re all part of the unique God-made ecosystem. He reproaches their ancestors who embalmed the dead to preserve corpses instead of returning them to the earth “to enrich the lives of other Creatures” (192). As a conclusion, Adam One invites everyone to say a silent prayer the next time they hold a handful of compost and to be grateful to all previous creatures of the Earth.

The gathering ends with a hymn, “We Praise the Tiny Perfect Moles,” which glorifies the lives of the small, often underrated creatures that do important work for the environment.