{"id":27,"date":"2015-05-22T13:27:22","date_gmt":"2015-05-22T13:27:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/sustainableearth\/?p=27"},"modified":"2015-10-15T12:45:13","modified_gmt":"2015-10-15T12:45:13","slug":"may-sustain-a-fable-sharing-inspiration-for-a-cracking-earth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/sustainableearth\/may-sustain-a-fable-sharing-inspiration-for-a-cracking-earth\/","title":{"rendered":"Sustain-a-fable: Sharing Inspiration for a Cracking Earth"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Tell me a fact and I\u2019ll learn. Tell me a truth and I\u2019ll believe.<\/em><\/p>\n

But tell me a story and it will live in my heart forever.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Native American proverb<\/p>\n

I have had an inspiring (and tiring) few days.<\/p>\n

We have just held our ISSR event \u2013 \u201cCracking Earth 2015:\u00a0 Building Sustainability Research with Foundations\u201d.\u00a0 With 23 Plymouth University speakers, 16 external speakers, 21 exhibition stands and about 240 delegates, the event was a fantastic success with most importantly \u2013 lots of good conversation and connections.<\/p>\n

There were a whole host of things that I found interesting, informative and useful \u2013 too many to mention here. \u00a0However, looking back, for me, it was the stories, poems, pictures, jokes, anecdotes and quotes that I found inspiring and it is these that stick in my head.<\/p>\n

This got me thinking.<\/p>\n

In my previous blogs, I have included a short story that influenced my thinking \u2013 \u201cThe Blind men and the elephant<\/a>\u201d \u2013 December 2011, a collection of quotes<\/a> that have influenced my thinking (from Winnie the Pooh to Aristotle)\u00a0 (Jan 2014) and also\u00a0poetry, quotes, metaphors and artwork that communicate sustainability to me<\/a> (Sept 2014).<\/p>\n

This also got me thinking \u2013 what do other people find inspiring and would they be happy to share this with others?\u00a0\u00a0 Hence, on the back of this blog, in the next few months, we will be launching a call about Sharing Inspiration for a Cracking Earth.\u00a0 The call will be open to staff, students in the first instance and external partners who are connected to the ISSR.\u00a0 It will not be an academic call for papers but rather a call for Inspiration.\u00a0 Have you ever been to an \u201cAmerican supper\u201d or \u201cpotluck supper\u201d as it is sometime called, this is how I would like it to work, i.e. you bring your own inspiring story, anecdote, joke etc and share it with other peoples inspiring stories.<\/p>\n

Inspiring short stories, quotes, poetry, jokes, anecdotes, metaphors, artwork, anything really \u2013 just aspects that inspire you and may also help to inspire others around aspects of sustainability.\u00a0 Depending on the response we get, we would like to share this inspiration far and wide.\u00a0 If you would like, we would also like you to explain in less than 150 words, what this means to you. \u00a0Although you can also submit items to be printed anonymously as well.\u00a0 \u00a0This doesn\u2019t have to be life changing inspiration, just something that makes you think!<\/p>\n

For example, a colleague recently recommended that I read the book, \u201cThe Alchemist\u201d by Paulo Coelho.\u00a0 I really enjoyed the book and it is a short story from the book that I recently found inspiring:<\/p>\n

The Secret of Happiness \u2013 an extract from \u2013 \u201cThe Alchemist\u201d by Paulo Coelho<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cA certain shopkeeper sent his son to learn about the secret of happiness from the wisest man in the world.<\/p>\n

The lad wandered through the desert for forty days, and finally came upon a beautiful castle, high atop a mountain. It was there that the wise man lived.<\/p>\n

Rather than finding a saintly man though, our hero, on entering the main room of the castle, saw a hive of activity: tradesmen came and went, people were conversing in the corners, a small orchestra was playing soft music, and there was a table covered with platters of the most delicious food in that part of the world.<\/p>\n

The wise man conversed with everyone, and the boy had to wait for two hours before it was his turn to be given the man\u2019s attention. The wise man listened attentively to the boy\u2019s explanation of why he had come, but told him that he didn\u2019t have time just then to explain the secret of happiness.<\/p>\n

He suggested that the boy look around the palace and return in two hours. \u201cMeanwhile I want to ask you to do something,\u201d said the wise man, handing the boy a teaspoon that held two drops of oil. \u2018As you wander around, carry this spoon with you without allowing the oil to spill.\u201d<\/p>\n

The boy began climbing and descending the many stairways of the palace, keeping his eyes fixed on the spoon. After two hours, he returned to the room where the wise man was. \u201cWell,\u201d asked the wise man, \u201cdid you see the Persian tapestries that are hanging in my dining hall? Did you see the garden that it took the master gardener ten years to create? Did you notice the beautiful parchments in my library?\u201d<\/p>\n

The boy was embarrassed, and confessed that he had observed nothing. His only concern had been not to spill the oil that the wise man had entrusted to him.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen go back and observe the marvels of my world,\u201d said the wise man.<\/p>\n

Relieved, the boy picked up the spoon and returned to his exploration of the palace, this time observing all of the works of art on the ceilings and the walls. He saw the gardens, the mountains all around him, the beauty of the flowers, and the tasted with which everything had been selected. Upon returning to the wise man, he related in detail everything he had seen.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut where are the drops of oil I entrusted to you?\u201d asked the wise man. Looking down at the spoon he held, the boy saw that the oil was gone.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, there is only one piece of advice I can give you.\u201d said the wisest of wise men. \u201cThe secret of happiness is to see all the marvels of the world, and never to forget the drops of oil on the spoon\u201d<\/p>\n

Cracking Earth: What this means to me<\/strong><\/p>\n

This story reminds me of the two meanings of Cracking Earth.\u00a0 For me, I am definitely more like the first time the boy went around the palace.\u00a0 Focussing on an earth that is cracking, falling apart and the responsibility of finding solutions.\u00a0 \u00a0Unfortunately, this sometimes means that I forget that we live in a cracking earth. \u00a0The story shows me that as well as focusing on the task of finding solutions, it is also important to enjoy the natural beauty of our cracking earth and to have a cracking time whilst we are here.<\/p>\n

\"Paul<\/a>Dr Paul Hardman<\/strong><\/p>\n

Manager of the Sustainable Earth Institute<\/p>\n

ps \u2013 if you can\u2019t wait for the call to be launched, please feel free to email me with your inspiration \u2013paul.hardman@plymouth.ac.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Tell me a fact and I\u2019ll learn. Tell me a truth and I\u2019ll believe. But tell me a story and it will live in my heart forever.” Native American proverb I have had an inspiring (and tiring) few days. We have just held our ISSR event \u2013 \u201cCracking Earth 2015:\u00a0 Building Sustainability Research with Foundations\u201d.\u00a0 With 23 Plymouth University speakers, 16 external speakers, 21 exhibition stands and about 240 delegates, the event was a fantastic success with most importantly \u2013Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":152,"featured_media":57,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/sustainableearth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/sustainableearth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/sustainableearth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/sustainableearth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/152"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/sustainableearth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/sustainableearth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/sustainableearth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27\/revisions\/67"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/sustainableearth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/sustainableearth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/sustainableearth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/sustainableearth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}