Imran Battla
| Occupation | #unemployedenvironmentalist |
|---|---|
| Introduction | For most of my adult life, I have tried to escape the concrete jungle of the the city. I have been blessed to spend an incredible amount of time in upstate New York where I learned about the metaphor of "one bowl, one spoon". This is an important concept in the Haudenosaunee [also known as the Iroquois] in upstate NY. The “one bowl, one spoon” is really a powerful metaphor that helps us think about the earth. That’s the bowl, this wonderful round bowl with berries and fish and water—all the things that we humans need. But it’s one bowl and it’s bounded. So the idea of the one bowl that we all are fed from, the earth—that bowl is finite. So when it is empty, it’s empty. It’s our responsibility to keep it full, so that everyone can be fed. Everyone is not just people though, it’s all the beings of creation. So how we do ensure that the one bowl lasts us? It’s because there’s one spoon. We all eat from the same bowl, and we all use the same spoon. I think it’s a powerful metaphor for justice—that there isn’t a little bitty teaspoon for some people and a great big ladle for other people. These gifts of the earth are shared with us by "Mother Earth". |