The idea of living naturally is not a new movement. And now, it has blown globally as a revolution – call it environmental revolution, economic revolution, moral recovery, return to basics, and other names. For the first time Change is being challenged since the Renaissance in the fifteenth century.
Dr Abe V Rotor
An emerging new generation before a wall mural of nature painted by the author at his residence in Metro Manila, 2015
Life is full of surprises and conflicts, which makes living a challenge, in fact a battle. We face that battle every day and everyone is engaged in it. And who is the enemy? Pogo, the comic character said, “The enemy is us.”
This dilemma of living is man’s oldest quest for a happy and contented life. Literature builds on this conflict. The plot in Shakespeare dramas is man pitted against himself. In Ernest Hemingway’s novel, For Whom the Bell Tolls, “the bell toll for no one but thee.” The Little Prince in Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s novel of the same title, tells us of a lost pilot in the desert visited by a young prince. The young visitor was no other than the pilot himself – the ideal, the faithful, the just, the courageous, the hopeful, forgotten by time and habit.
In our present world we face more and greater conflicts. Even with so-called progress and affluence, living has not been any better than that of our ancestor in health, peace, contentment, social bonding, and other basic parameters.
It is because they lived close to Nature, defined in many ways: Ceres, the goddess of bounty in Greek mythology, Venus the goddess of natural beauty, Maria Makiling guardian of a virgin mountain forest. Neptune guardian of the creatures of the sea. Nature as defined in herbal medicine, organic farming, a weekend spent in outdoor camping, of breast-fed children.
The idea of living naturally is not a new movement. And now, it has blown globally as a revolution – call it environmental revolution, economic revolution, moral recovery, return to basics, and other names. For the first time Change is being challenged since the Renaissance in the fifteenth century.
Here are ways by which we can live naturally. This outline is a result of sessions workshop style - hands-on and on-site learning.
- Broil instead of fry
- Cook at home, less at restaurants, fast foods
- Use glass and china, instead of plastic containers
(To be continued, article in progress) Patron saint of Emissaries