The Vision that is Stolen

Isn't the lake beautiful? With the sun turning it into the color of gold. It is like a true treasure. You are right, it is like gold!

I was on a walk with a 5-year-old. We talked about amazing adventures, fairytales, heroes, and imagined distant worlds. When we got to a lake familiar to me, we sat down and had a cup of tea. I had carried the warm water in my bag. I also carried our drinking water and some fruit with me. It had become a routine for me to carry the water with me. But as we sat by the lake, I recalled when I was a child, and we drank from the lake. We never brought water with us at that time.

As we sat by the lake, I told the 5-year-old about when I was a child, and we drank from the lake. I was faced with deep ogling. "No, why would you do that? It is dangerous! There is so much pollution in the water! You can Die!" This was true, in a way. Today, I couldn't imagine drinking out of the lake. But when I was young, I did. It was hard for me to unpack. It was painful. I needed to face the 'easy truths' I told myself. The path led me through frustration, despair, a wildly broken heart, and finally, on leading a different outcome.

Phase1: Frustration

As we sat by the lake, me having the 5-year-old giving me this ogling look with his deep consideration for my health, I was faced with the question if it was true that we didn't realize the water of the lake was not safe to drink. I wish I could say yes, as it would have been the 'easy answer'. The truth was much more painful, and the conversation even more so. I told the story of how the lake was clean enough to drink the water as it was. I was young, but there was enough knowledge and information on the state of the lake and the quality of the water so that if it had been polluted, we would not have been drinking the water. "But surely, our understanding of both health and measurements of water have become better, haven't they? Surely we know more now than we knew when you were little?", the 5-year-old insisted. It was hard for me to disagree. Even if it was only 30 years ago, considering the age of the lake, it seemed like a very short time, much had happened in that time. Science has for sure taken huge leaps.

But could this be explained by us being more aware of the pollution in the lake? We sat and drank some tea, and I was thinking. We live outside the capital region, and we have a natural well from where we get our drinking water. We regularly run diagnostics on it to ensure it is safe to drink. And to be on the safe side, we run the large diagnostics set on it, despite it being more expensive, and many argue there is no need for it. For all these years, the results have been the same; the water is of higher quality than the municipality water. It is more pure and clean and contains less residue. And this is with no man-made purification systems.

Could this have been the situation with the lake as well? It is hard to imagine now, as we can see oil in the lake's water close to where we are sitting. We don't need to run any tests to know it is unsafe to drink.

Phase 2: Despair

I explain that the water we drink at home comes straight from nature, and there is no purification system. We could go to the well and take a cup of water, which would be the same as taking it from the tap. Again I am faced with the ogling look of the 5-year-old. "Are you telling me that the water I drink at your place is without it being cleaned? Are you crazy?! I can get sick!" I don't know how to respond...

I can feel the despair and the confusion. Of course, there is a purification system, but it is a natural one. We use some of the water, and new water comes in from nature. Nature makes it clean, and it seems to be doing a better job than humans. But how can I explain it? I can feel my head get filled with even more questions. What if the water in the well becomes polluted? What if they start using chemicals somewhere, or it runs dry, or the field next to it becomes fertilized? Surely there must be rules on what you can do next to a drinking well and what you can not?

Working with sustainability, I imagine a world where all lakes all over the world would be clean enough so that we can drink from them. Have I been living in an illusion? It has been grounded in my childhood when this was a reality, or it was real for me. But now, this 5-year-old is making me doubt if it was true. Were we just ignorant and unknowing, or was it a reality? I start to doubt myself. I can feel the gaze eagerly waiting for my response. I take a sip of my tea.

What have I got myself into here? What kind of a world are we creating? If I am in doubt about lakes being clean enough to drink from, even if I have lived it, how will I be able to convince a child it is not a wild dream? They only the lake as it is today. How will I be able to have them believe that it is not only a dream but something that has been and will be a reality?

Without thinking, I make things even worse. I ask, "is it really so hard for you to believe that you could just drink out of the lake and it is completely safe or even better water than at home?". Without any doubt, I get the response, "it is impossible, that could never be a reality". I ask why, and here is the response I get. Be reminded that this is a 5-year-old. "The water smells bad, it is not clear in color. There is dirt on the surface, the thing my parents tell me to look out for, as it is not even safe to swim if you see those rainbow colors on the water. I do not see fish in it, and I can not see to the bottom, even if I think it is not that deep here. I would never drink that water, even if it were cleaned".

Phase 3: My Wildly Broken Heart

My heart is broken. In that instance, I recall what the lake looked like when I was a child and what it has become. And even worse, I see this 5-year-old giving me a painfully accurate description of what is normal for him. But actually, it is not normal at all. When we sat down, the only thing I saw was beauty. Now the only thing I see is what the lake has become and how it has been destroyed. This, in combination with the deep, intense look of the 5-year-old.

You might think this is a single case and a rare conversation. Trust me, it is not. When I was studying in Switzerland, in Lugano, I heard the same story about Lake Lugano. When found, the water was so clean, you could drink right out of it. As time passed by, we directed our wastewater into the lake, and we even dumped car tires into the depths of the lake. The shore is cluttered with different types of plastics and other pollution. It is far from drinkable without man-made purifying systems today. Despite its beauty and its seeming clean water, it is very far from safe or drinkable. And it is extremely difficult to clean up to its old pride and purity.

But not only this breaks my heart. In 30 years and less, we have managed to destroy these beautiful natural resources. It is not generations 50 - 100 years from now who are taking the consequences, it is we, ourselves, and our children. For them, drinking from a lake is a fairytale. For me, it is a memory of my childhood. It is a real, tangible thing. Even if we cleaned up the lake, how would I convince children it is safe to drink? How can we again consider the water in the lake as equally valuable as the well outside our home or the clean, drinkable water in the tap? My heart is broken, as this 5-year-old can not even imagine a clean lake anymore. I feel this future is stolen from him and all of the joy that came for me, as a child, along with it. How could this happen? How could I let this happen? When did I accept the new normal of carrying the water with me? How did I never before stop and pay attention? It feels like waking up from a dream. But it is overwhelming. I am just one small person. What can I do?

Phase 4: Leading a different outcome

Trust me, I would have wanted to take the 'easy way out' and say science knows better now than to drink from the lake. I would also have wanted to say that the issue is so much bigger than I am that it makes little sense to do much about it. But I followed a different pathway. I asked, "what would the lake look like if you could swim in it, see fish, and drink from the lake all at the same time". First, I got a skeptical look. Then the response, "it is not possible". I felt a sting in my heart. I was close to giving up, as it was devastating to see, how this 5-year-old was convinced it is not possible. I tried to lead us in a different direction again, and I pushed a bit more. "Humor me. We have been able to imagine distant worlds and made up our own fairytales. I am sure we can create this story as well". There was a long period of silence. I could see how the mind of the 5-year-old was struggling.

Then he started. "First, there would need to be a purifying system over there. Then we would need to take care of the fish and make sure they have food, but not too much food. And that they have plants and other nice things they like in the water. Maybe even their own amusement park". Interesting and quite practical, with a bit of humor in it, I am thinking. And he goes on, "There would also need to be an area where you can swim. So that you do not disturb the fish everywhere". I stop him and ask, "couldn't people and fish swim together". He looks at me and says with determination, "we humans eat fish", and turns his eyes back at the lake. Ok, I think. That is a good point.

I can sense the grumpiness in his tone. I ask him about it. The grumpiness comes from it being hard to know how you could get the lake from its current condition to the one I am asking him to imagine. I recognize the frustration. I struggle with it as well. I get too caught up in what I think is possible and forget to dream. Dream, that's it! I tell both of us to close our eyes. Then we agree to take turns re-imagining the lake. This took us to the most amazing lake. A real treasure. A combination of dreams that, in one way, became true.

So what?

The lake still remains polluted today. We did have the most amazing dream of what the lake could look like and some thoughts on how we could get there. But did anything change? In my opinion, yes. The 5-year-old could imagine a lake from which you can drink water. Even more, he actually would want the lakes to be like that. Now, the discussions are on why it isn't so and why we aren't making it possible.

I learned that allowing the painful truths to enter my heart and having a hard look at what is happening during my lifetime, is essential. It is painful but needed. It is so easy to accept the 'new realities' thinking that we can not impact things. It is also easier than having your heart broken. That lake was a place where I found peace and beauty. Now it represents the outcome of me outsourcing my responsibility of speaking up for a future I want to see and defending things that matter to me. It represents things I took for granted and did not value until taken from me and future generations.

But most importantly, all of this represents hope. We can dream, we are creative, and we can re-imagine our own outcome. None of us wants to see the impact we have had on the lake. But instead of us allowing our hearts to break, we hide behind vague 'truths' and stories we tell ourselves to protect ourselves. But in doing so, nothing will change. The pain will keep growing, and we will face even more heartbreak in the future.

And before you think so, I will tell you I have not been going to the lake regularly can clean up plastics and other pollution from it. I have not made fundraising campaigns to clean it. To be honest, I have done very little, if anything, to improve the situation of that lake. It would be fair to call me a hypocrite, speaking so fondly of the lake and still doing nothing about it. In truth, I most likely could find the time to do some cleanup or a fundraiser, or an awareness campaign. But I haven't and most likely won't.

My superpower is in storytelling. My superpower is in having these moments with different people. My superpower is in dreaming and imagining. And my superpower is in seeing so much inspiration and beauty in the world in almost anything I hear, touch, or lay eyes on. So what I do, is that I allow my heart to be broken in different situations, to enable discussions in nature on what we see. We recognize what we want to keep and what we would want to change. It is really hard to measure the impact of that activity. It is really hard to say if anything changes. But I believe it has an impact, and I believe things do change.

If we can imagine where we are going and re-imagine an inspiring future, I am convinced we, with all humanity's creativity, will find the solutions. But it all starts with a dream, a desire, a will, and a wild love for an inspirational future. In some cases, it starts with a broken heart.