The German novelist and poet, Herman Hesse, once wrote that “next to the hunger to experience a thing, men have perhaps no stronger hunger than to forget”
And what does that have to do with a sustainability internship? Though this was not likely the context that Hesse wrote his words, I believe this perspective gives us the best explanation for the modern need for sustainability classes, consultants, efforts, etc. around the world.
Throughout our wonky mess of history, humans have had a frightening tendency to pursue their own personal experience of wealth, comfort, and ambition at the expense of others. We have seen individual opportunities and freedom suppressed through impoverishment, slavery, and war… We have seen mountains, forests, lakes, and rivers taken from our view forever. Believing that humans are inherently good; for these pursuits to have taken place, it has required a certain type of forgetfulness. A forgetfulness that sets aside others who may like to determine their own outcome in life or to view the same natural wonders as preceding generations. And it is this forgetfulness that has taken away the human experience of so many in the past, the present, and the future.
As Van Jones notes in Bridging the Green Divide, “We’ve got a disposable mind-set: disposable products, disposable species, disposable people. We don’t see our sisters and brothers, much less all the animal species, as sacred. The failure to honor the sacred is at the root of… problems.”
To me, more than anything, sustainability is about our obligation to not forget that others would like to share in the life experiences that we have had.
Every day I am able to walk around our 4 million book warehouse and be amazed at what humans have been able to create with their minds. I am also very lucky to have the opportunity to pick up any one of those books and have my own life experience enhanced and expanded… Whether it be a new train of thought, new knowledge, or a shared feeling… Books have provided me the opportunity to see the world and my own life in endless ways. Sadly, there are hundreds of millions of people in the world that have not be provided the same opportunity.
Of all experiences I have had at Better World Books, it has been the ability to share these books, ideas, and knowledge with the world. More so, with those who are so impoverished that they have never had experience with books or outside influences expanding their minds. Through our book donation program I have been able to send hundreds of books to children in Liberia and less fortunate communities in the US… to children who have, very literally, never had a book of their own.
It is my hope that those books are now allowing children to create a view of the world outside of their own circumstances. To let the children imagine and escape… to grow. And maybe just maybe, the books can help them learn the skills and develop the motivation to improve their lives and to experience more of the world.
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