The lecturer asked us to individually envision a sustainable world, we had to choose 5 key words and think about what influenced our vision. We closed our eyes and thought how this possible world would look like. At the beginning the exercise seemed to me a relaxing activity; a technique to focus on something different and distant form the real world. The task was more complicated than ever because we are usually limited by our perceptions and mindsets. I tried to build something new and different from what we normally see in reality. I didn’t succeed, my thoughts were more on how to solve problems rather than how would a sustainable world look like. Our minds are not trained for creative thinking, instead we believe that problems are resolved from what we see or interpret from reality.
Then, during a class of Sustainable Development: Introductory Principles and Practices at Macquarie University, I was asked to represent with a group of classmates the journey to achieve sustainability. This time the exercise was easier, I required a good metaphor that embedded the challenges, obstacles and means needed to reach a sustainable society. I had a discussion with my group, we saw others drawings and they were mostly representing interactions in society. We wanted something different and I came with the idea of runner in a very hard journey, one member of my group supported my idea. Immediately we all agreed, the runner should face obstacles, forks in the road, distractions and in some stages the runner should receive energy to continue running.
The metaphor was of great significance for our group, because the runner represented each of us, making our best effort to reach sustainable development. An ambitious journey that I hope all the members of the class felt excited to undertake.
Caption from http://www.happyrunningfeet.net/the-best-running-shoes-for-flat-feet-3-critical-tests/
Education for Sustainable Development 