Small and beautiful

Dear Editor:

Friday, April 22, is Earth Day, and we will be encouraged to spend the day thinking about protecting the Earth. The best way to do that is to continue to live the smaller lives that we have lived over the past two years.

Oxford educated economist E.F. Schumacher nearly 50 years ago published Small is Beautiful: A Study of Economics as if People Mattered. In it he argued that smaller scale, human scale was the way to a beautiful future. COVID-19 has taught us that smaller lives are not diminished lives. Smaller lives can be rich in relationships with neighbours and people who we meet on walks. Smaller lives can be filled with hobbies and exploring craft skills we laid aside years ago. Smaller lives can have less stress as we manage fewer things and have less to worry about.

The best thing we can do for the Earth this Earth Day is commit to living human-sized lives. Lives that leave behind only footprints and meaningful relationships. Lives that rejoice in the simple and small, which are beautiful and fulfilling.

Let us choose for the small and the beautiful.

Peter Bush, Fergus