Every morning a flock of pigeons wait in expectation for my appearance; when I appear, they get excited, for I bring them bird food. My garden is a safe haven of food and fresh water for which the birds can feed, drink and wash.
The bird garden is my template for my contribution in helping others. Here I am not so important beyond being the guardian and maintainer of a safe space that provides food and water for the needs of birds. In dealing with victims of religious extremists, specifically children who suffer injustice at the hands of these extreme crazy people, my ideal role is still about creating safe spaces with tools, information and support for victims. This ideal is slightly at odds with my current role of direct challenges on religious extremists, of evidence gathering, of reporting the extremists to police and social media, as well as providing counter narratives to the false ones of the extremists. This conflict of ideal with my present role is put into context as a result of the disasterous involvement with a manipulative and deceitful so-called victim of extremists called Jamie Lofthouse.
One of the leading challenges of my fight against religious extremists who prey on children is that in my niche of child protection there are too many egos and empire builders, who have seen this ongoing struggle with the extremists as a way to enhance their personal brands, status, vanity and following. Jamie Lofthouse is one of those people whose intentions was never really about challenging injustices against children from religious extremists but more about ego and gaining a following for his YouTube branding. Nobody chooses to be a victim of predators such as the religious extremists but Lofthouse seemed to me to indulge and encourage the joy of victimhood, a kind of emotional vampire that preyed on my time, energy and good intentions in a very destructive way.
There are lots of people in my niche of child protection that wish to play the role of leader and hero, whereas my approach is different. Being in the limelight is something I hate and avoid; hence I am invisible and place importance not on me but upon the things I fight for: fighting a certain type of religious extremist that inflicts injustice on children (and by extension other vulnerable victims). I prefer to see myself as the standard bearer, like the one who carried the Eagle of a Roman Legion into battle: the standard bearer was not important, but the Eagle was. for to lose the Eagle brought disgrace to a Roman Legion, to the Roman Emperor and to Rome.
The one who bore the Eagle was not a hero or a leader, the Eagle is all anyone saw. The Eagle was the point where the Roman Legion rallied when facing defeat, defending to the death; it was the Eagle that moved with the Forlorn Hope, the first wave of attacks on a city wall which took the highest casualties. My role of being that invisible person holding the Eagle, is also the same as my preferred role of being the scout or Roman road builder moving at the head of the advancing Roman armies. The point is who I am, where I am or anything about my life, family and other personal details is irrelevant beyond being the equivalent of the invisible Eagle standard bearer.
The Garden and the Eagle is the ideal end points that I wish to move towards in practically everything I am involved in, not just in this niche of child protection. The matter concerning Jamie Lofthouse has created a massive crisis around roles, but is also an opportunity with blessings in disguise to move to getting to the Garden and Eagle end states.