I’m on the Road this week. Stopping over in Nice to search for an apartment for my son who is studying here next year. Then off for ten days in CROATIA, down the Dalmatian Coast. Returning by Venice, then Marseille.
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Am I willing to change my ways ? I am still the same person I was at 5, 15, 25, 40. My husband calls
me the ‘ quincado, the ‘ fifty-teen ‘. However, I am willing to change my actions, if unwilling and unable to change myself. You are what you achieve. ‘ I am what I am’ as Jerry Lee would say.
1989, return from a year in Africa. ConsumerismSociety was suddenly unbearable. Although in 1987, I had already sensed this: I had wanted to join Volunteers Abroad to teach English and French in schools around the world. I was politely asked to seek employment elsewhere, as my diploma was not that of a teacher of English, but a BA in Business Administration. However I was bilingual English/French, spoke German and Russian and had given English lessons to countless kids around the block. I had also travelled extensively and knew how to adapt to different cultures. My will and abilities counted for nothing because I did not fit into a box. Will and might do not change the world. Actions do. Not speeches or diplomas.
To change the world start by changing your ways. So that is where I started. I earned my living in
jobs corresponding to my diploma.
Then when I had earned enough to choose what I wanted to do and where I wanted to live, I passed my exams to teach English as a foreign language and taught in Spain, English and French to children, teens and adults, in schools and firms. At the same time, my crusade against consumerism began, changing things in my lifestyle, day by day, little by little.
First, eating seasonal fruit and vegetables, which I started doing in France. Buying my produce from greegrocers, small supermarkets, local butcher and fishmonger, cheese mongers. Buying local or at least French, then Catalan or Spanish products.
From 1994, I started to find organic and environmental friendly products and extended their purchase up till now when my whole shopping cart is solely composed of them.
Little by little, step by step, initiating my children along the way, as they came, grew and left the nest. Planting, harvesting. Avoiding use of the car then reverting to electric and solar, wind based energies for the house. My children walked, cycled to school and gave up most superfluous consumerism habits. Now living on their own, they follow suit by a will of their own and perseverance, initiating others along the way.
Thank you for reading. Please feel free to comment and I will be sure to reply.
