“We but mirror the world. All the tendencies present in the outer world are to be found in the world of our body. If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. This is the divine mystery supreme. A wonderful thing it is and the source of our happiness. We need not wait to see what others do.” – Mahatma Gandhi.
When I consume, I feel lackness. This observation first appeared in my life when I decided to regulate my diet. Suddenly, I was able to see the angry hunger approaching every time I stretched the gap between meals further. It was a first step, an awareness of seemingly natural embedded behavior I carried for over 30 years. How did I miss the opportunity to challenge this tendency and gain control of my emotions for so many years? Probably a mix of ignorance, denial, and lack of introspection.
After I became aware of It, I realized that besides situations of extremities, most of the time I can become aware and choose my behavior.
I chose to start our Non-For-Profit initiative manifesto with this story as it represents the essence behind our Photo-Documentary, “Minting A Glacier” NFT series. Our commitment start and ends with a promise of self-reflection on our own doing. We hope that by joining our journey you would be motivated to doubt and drop previous assumptions about what is lacking in your life and how to reach fulfillment.
During the first week of the project, I learned how detached we tend to be, even while in nature. I sat for hours not touching any distractions (not even the camera), and only after a couple of days my eyes, my ears, and my being was ready to experience the nature that surrounded me. I was finally ready to document what I experience.
For most of our lives, however, we don't have this suspended time privilege. Not when we are waking up in the morning and rushing to our kids and work, and not when we secure a vacation that costs a fortune and we just want to make everything perfect and iconic. We detach and distract ourselves so well that we just don't know otherwise. Our planet's deteriorating circumstances are the direct causality of our addiction to consumption, distractions, and detachment.
Thus, if we truly strive to commit humanity to face the challenges ahead, we believe that the first step is to self-reflect and regulate our behavior. Without our intrinsic feeling of lackness, our consumption habits will decay and will be mindful of our actions towards nature.
We hear voices of despair reflecting hedonistic determinism such as “ It is too late, and any way rich people pollution exceed any offset we can make, so we better just continue to live the way we do and enjoy these moments while its lasts”. We hope to counter these fears and echo a clear voice that even if no disastrous effect was approaching us, and even if it is too late, successfully going beyond the feeling of lacking has by itself a fulfilling goal. What Gandhi spoke of isn’t a fluidic notion but rather a real opportunity.
Once we as individuals conquer our feeling of lackness and neglect of distractions, our economy, and social fabric as we know it will shift and turn towards a harmonized one that can support the development of our human potential. There are no steps to take but the ones we take ourselves. So, let’s start.
