Im a 26 year-old woman and one half of me is from the city and the other half from the countryside. Most of my life i have lived in Helsinki, but like many other Finnish people we have a summer cottage and ours is on an island 1,5 hours from Helsinki. There I spent all my summers since early childhood. Life on the island (no running water, electricity, no TV…) taught me to look for the balance between city life and nature. Being so close to nature, makes you realise that every decision you make, will have an impact on YOUR environment. My parents used to tell me to respect all living forms, even if some worms are disgusting, it is still an important part of the whole eco-system.
Even though I had this kind of education from home, it took me a while to realise how i should change my own ways. Loving animals and nature is not enough and giving money to charity work to feel better will not change much in the long-term. However, doing volunter work with wild animals gave me a better conscience but only for a short while. Maybe living in the poorest parts of the world changed my view of consuming. By seeing people with very little but still being happy and generous, made me understand, that complaining about something as trivial as unmatching shoes/dress is completley pointless.
People tend to think that small things do not matter and that small acts fall in the shadows of the big problems. I do not think that this is true, because small changes in your own life will make the micro enviorement where you live in different. By FB updates and blogs you can make someone realize something. Feel free to make suggestions on how we can make things better!
Leave a comment