Ashes

For the past week Sweden and parts of Europe have been covered in ash from an Icelandic Volcano eruption. Or covered is using the wrong word because we can’t see it but its high up there somewhere forcing the airplanes to stay on the ground. Although I missed my long planned conference in Stockholm and my husband was stuck first in France and then Germany I really think it’s a good thing! We need to slow down and focus on what’s important in life. We are so used to being able to fly around the world at the spur of the moment or travel from point A to point B in no time that we tend to forget that 50 years ago we moved around in a whole other pace. In the western world we think it’s more or less a human right to have a vacation on the other side of the globe several times a year. It is a bit like earth hour when we switch of our electricity forgetting that millions of people haven’t even got electricity to switch off!

A woman interviewed on TV said it was a catastrophe her husband having to drive 600 kilometers to bring her and the children home when they got stranded in Stockholm. At the same time the death rate of the Chinese earthquake was 1200 people. Now THAT is a catastrophe!

Maybe the volcanic ash can help us get a different perspective on how we travel. I mean volcanic ash is one thing but the global pollution made my airplanes now that are a whole other ballgame.

Take care
Jeanette