Progress?

The story goes that once upon a time, there was an ice age. This was a few full moons ago now. This marked the beginning of what was known as the Holocene Epoch (starting about 12,000 years ago).

During this epoch, as humans we moved beyond our nomadic existences and became farmers who tilled the land. We designed tools and built homes that allowed us to stay in the same place. We acquired possessions, stole others’ possessions, and built towns and cities. These actions had consequences on our natural world. We no longer only left footprints; we left a legacy of human imprint that changed natural ecosystems as we forced ourselves into those ecosystems.

We industrialised, cut down forests, and burned fossil fuels. These actions have influenced and, most claim changed our natural and biodiverse world.

This impact of human intervention was coined as the Anthropocene in 2000 by Nobel Prize-winning atmospheric chemist Paul Crutzen.

The Anthropocene is not a definitive period but instead represents the interconnectedness of human society and the natural world and the effects humans have on our world.

Recognising this impact encourages our collective responsibility to address and support sustainable practices, which will allow the environment to hopefully regenerate and become more biodiverse.

This calls for introducing ideas that can support and redefine new metanarratives (or revisit old narratives), which will inform future thinking as to what is progress.

Through aesthetic education, there becomes a framework that allows us to savour inner time. Time is what we need for progress as regeneration occurs.

Have you made time today to breathe so the world around you can also breathe?

Possibly this is how progress really unfolds?

Making time to breathe, where the breath signifies life and sustaining life is progress.

Until next time,

Mon x