* By Urban Gardens
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Where are we standing?
We seem about to crash soonwe have been traveling a beautiful and expansive path but somewhat hesitant, we have seen it for a long time, we are considering potential optimisms that seem to point to nothing more than digging wells.
We receive news of the scarcity of natural resources, climate change and the population explosion all the time while we fill the holes in this magical land with mountains of garbage. Nature, already rid of its cultural image of protective mother, is now a jungle full of violence What happens to us that we have been walking like wandering vagabonds through this paradise? What do we do? What do we believe? Are we willing to read the infinite information that is given to us and swerve the other way?
Our planet earth and the biosphere, of which those of us who write and read are part, make up an integrated system, although sometimes we find it hard to admit it, we continually ignore that everything is notOur well-being depends on the flow of exchange with the environment that we inhabit
It is nature that provides us with something like all goods and services: the food that nourishes us, the materials that we acquire for the construction of each blessed home and services such as purification, the water that we use and drink, the regulation of gases and climatic forces. Even the air we breathe without nature, in fact, none of this would be possible.
Our capricious efforts to decimate it have disturbed the natural balance and exacerbated the crisis we must think of something new, in view of the chaos, our skills are at least questionable, there is always more, or so they said.
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another way of looking at things
Now, if we want to modify our way of inhabiting this house, a good idea may be to transform our vision of it, we have tamed the fire, humanity is free to reflect on the nature of the world. Einstein once said:if you search in the depths of nature, you will understand everything much better”.
Are we not also nature? There, the ways of inhabiting the world seem to work differently. When have you seen a group of ants fighting over a leaf? Or to the lungs to fight to conquer the liver? When a tissue in our body is damaged, our cells undertake their regeneration collectively, dividing tasks.
They are efficient and form intelligent communities of cooperative work just like those of a lettuce, in fact, it is those same cells that have brought us here.
Why and how did trillions of single-celled organisms manage to join forces to become us?
Maybe we can get some clue from them, we humans have gotten into a mess being much less, as in our body there are each and every one of these cells, each and every one of us is like a cell of our humanity. If we want to build an empathic relationship with our nature, efficient in the use of its resources and resilient in its processes we have to look closely. Nature reveals design patterns at all levels of organization. If we look closely, we may find a map that helps us understand.
How come cell communities have been so successful? Well, being that, communities, apparently it is not as Charles Darwin said, it is not the fittest who survive, but the less fit who do not. In between, a difference.
To survive you must not be the bestbut you simply have to adapt, in other words, those organisms that best fit into the environment are the ones that sustain global harmony and thrive.
What if cooperating and sharing were the only reason for our evolution?
As we see in these cellular systems, as well as in large groups of species, success is not based on competitiveness and survival of the fittest, but rather on the level of precision with which each one in that group fulfills their task of cooperation. They form a community, an organization of individuals who share common interests, attitudes, or goals and who work toward them.
The key here is sharing. Personal interests must be put aside. to make this circus work. In return, we will obtain the well-being that comes from greater efficiency. Within each community, each one contributes their task, talent or mission, favoring the survival of said group.. It is not the similarity but the difference that brings value. As everything. Each organ with its task, each cell with its mission. All together to the afterlife.
Meanwhile, the movie is different. We are wondering: what role do we want to assume? We are not in this world mere passive observers, but active participants of what happens. Understanding our power and acting accordingly is the key to contributing to a healthier manifestation of our environment. We can complain, we can sit back and watch everything fall apart, or we can put our hands into action. Well, there are various forms of activism. What happens if we all, with individual actions, in small communities, activate the change? Or do we want to be the apple that rots the drawer?
There are different ways of acting as a community and promoting cooperation between the various sectors of the population. For example, a community garden can be set up.
orchard sidewalk is a community garden of a group of residents of the lower San Isidro, northern zone of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, Argentina. It arose during the quarantine. Lots of free time, few chances to go very far, it didn’t take long to discover that all its participants, residents of the neighborhood, had interests in common.
What was linked to the land, to the forms of consumption or to plastics, were issues that mattered to all of us, We decided to get down to work, in August 2020, we built a compost bin where we used to make a well for organic waste. We didn’t buy anything, we didn’t ask for permission, we didn’t think we had to know too much to carry it out. We put everything we had together and started making.
Within a week, compost bin #1 was full. The other neighbors began to come closer, delighted with the idea of revitalizing a green space that until now had functioned as a garbage dump or parking lot.
A collective desire, not channeled until now, to get involved socially was beginning to be glimpsed. This great little project that began with a wooden box, brought us something much bigger than all of the above, a sense of community. Not only has it generated an environmental impact due to the transformation of the green space, but, and above all, a social impact in the neighborhood, a sense of community.
Flowers, insects, aromas, vegetables, children playing, neighbors sharing, food cooking, we met doing a garden and now we are friends. People of different ages, interests and ambitions share one goal. Each one from his place, with his profession or trade, contributes to a common cause, the garden on the sidewalk, which is no longer one, but several, on several sidewalks. A movement.
We believe that the best way to see changes is by creating the conditions for them to emerge. Experience has taught us that it doesn’t take much to build and that that built always brings more than expected. Activism is not only blocking a street or standing in front of the congress, but also, offer a hand to a neighbor, share the information or the fruit of the work. What is it that moves you? What do you do for it? What are your tools? What do you need to enhance your desire?