Editors Note

I intend to contact you regularly by email at the weekend. The first week has passed and the time has come to do a brief analysis. Filling in the KYOTO forms means   applying oneself to life more consciously, thinking again about what has happened with a brief glance backwards. How did I feed myself this week? How and where did I go shopping, or what did I get from the garden to cook for myself? Did I have meat, fish, vegan or vegetarian food? Did I have enough time for myself? What did I do with the packaging – did I recycle it or did I try to avoid it? How many kilometres did I travel this week and by what means of transport?

As a journalist, I end up meeting lots of people. Once – a long time ago – I met a woman who said that she didn’t produce any rubbish. My editor-in-chief sent me to investigate her and deep down, we were all waiting to find out that she was cheating. However, she used cloth bags and empty bottles and jars when she went shopping and only bought products in bulk at farmers’ markets. She had a cloth bag for bread, instead of butter she chose natural vegetable margarine in a jar and made sweets from the strawberries she bought. She bought cheese  which wasn’t packaged and when she bought something with packaging, she would unwrap it at the supermarket checkout and put it in a reusable container. It’s a long story and I don’t want to bore you, but she even bought coffee in bulk and used the grouts to fertilize her flowers.

Where am I leading to with this? Anything is possible, my friends! When I once had to wait three days before finally interviewing the Dalai Lama in Lisbon, he surprised me by asking me  which of my feet had first touched the ground that morning? During the interview what he intended it became clear to me. He was testing me to see if I was aware. And at the time (and now still) I wasn’t used to waiting three days. But I had passed the test. I hope you all have a good weekend …

Uwe Heitkamp