Flipping Out On The Balcony
It was a warm, balmy evening. The setting sun glinted across the rooftops of the city. Trees in the nearby park shimmered as the breeze rustled the leaves. The sky was a palette of blues dappled with a few pink clouds. It was beautiful pause in the day. Life was fantastic. Beautiful world, happy family, useful work, liberty of leisure. Anything was possible. The city sounds drifted up and made me smile. I loved life.
Life was good. It was great. But looking out across the rooftops of the city from the balcony of the penthouse suite, something felt not right.
From the balcony of our top floor apartment I looked down to the building site next door. Groundworks on another block of flats had begun. There was a small campsite made from corrugated sheets where the building crew lived. It was the end of the day and a couple of men were bathing in a large tub of greyish rain water. I could see the fire where they would cook some chicken and vegetables. It might seem OK, they had food, shelter and work – but their life was not easy. They were regular people, feeding their families. They were down in the mud just getting by, while I was up in the penthouse with a view of the world: “Master of the Universe”. That was not right.
Did it have to be like that? After all these centuries and with all this new technology and understanding surely we could do a better job of sharing this planet.
Download PDF of chapter to read on …
It’s a big topic, but you make it readable. Astonished at some perspectives that you give – like why are we racing to space before sorting out this planet? And our place in the universe relative to time (billions of years) and space (billions of km) reminds me that the planet is more important than today’s profit.