My friend Simon wrote a wonderful article for The Seattle Globalist, encouraging Seattle to be "green" in a different way- contrasting his experience growning up in a Kenyan slum with his life in Seattle now. He says:
Many of us adhere to sustainability because it’s trendy, but we are not aware of how our consumptive lifestyle counteracts our efforts to be green.
In my own experience, the excessiveness of American culture is so easy to buy into (literally!) when you're living amidst it, yet something struggle with each time I travel and come home to it.
I had a conversation with a Zambian few years back about the absence of refrigerators in his community. Even households who could afford to didn't have them.They had no need, they ate what they needed and any leftover food was given away to hungary neighbors.
Anyway, just a little encouragement to love others, and for all of us to remember the difference between "want" and "need" today.
Jenny,
ReplyDeleteThanks so much, I love the way you have built the story and also shared what I wrote.
One love.