Acquiring products that last longer than a few months or years feels to be fleeting. The yearning for more continues to be pervasive throughout our culture even though we are more aware of the degradation and damage our materialism causes to other parts of the world than ever before. Consumption is the byproduct of our unrelenting greed and vain desire. Our conceptualization of permanence has almost vanished from our modern minds with the perpetuation of convenience and personal fulfillment at the forefront of our reasons to live. A relational responsibility to each other has almost entirely dissolved. In yesteryears, we had to consider how our actions impacted our neighbours downriver or how our waste may affect local wildlife or those living nearby. Ironically, I am too young to have witnessed many of these sensibilities and have merely heard or read of them.

Due to individualistic ego-centrism, I continue to yearn to find people and places that make choices with the future in mind while embracing the goodness found in the present. In a communal context, the goodness and suffering experienced in the current moment only have the past decisions of others to thank or criticize. This is where fidelity to place is required for good decisions to outweigh the negative. If one is merely a visitor or consumer of a place, they stand on no ground to be critical of the actions that occur and are not careful themselves. Not only do we need to commit to a place to be responsible for, but we must also then intentionally engage in how it is ordered. Unfortunately, many of the required sentiments that enable healthy permanence, such as responsibility, fidelity, intentionality, contemplation, care, commitment, and love of everyone around us, are exceptionally rare.

The images shared this week were made with the hope to generate a desire within others to participate in making their homelands healthier, more whole places to live.