Over two days, my colleagues Rod Sugden, Silvia Pedretti and I involved Swarovski CSR, Foundation and Water School Teams in a creative exploration of the deep time journey of the Universe, writes Jane Riddiford.
"After our first day with the Swarowski teams I was full of the day we had just had with them; full of cosmos, full of explosions and stillness, full of thoughts and silence. I thought it would be powerful to create a direct connection between Swarovsksi and our young people. Would sending a message to a young person they had never met hold meaning for them? Could they feel the weight of their words as a way of inspiring reflection in young people? We hear about businesses, we hear about social responsibility, we hear about sustainability, but what is the interpretation of these themes for the people who actually work in big corporations, how would they translate their experience of our shared history in the Universe into a message for future generations?"
Clara and Christopher, two of our Generators, sat in the Skip Garden's sky room and watched a video message from Brian who is in the Swarovski CSR team. I gave them the simple free fall writing guidelines; "Write without stopping, write in the sun, write your thoughts and feelings without worrying about grammar and spelling, just let go and let yourself be surprised".
A simple two minute video message generated profound questions. What if these opportunities happened every day? Encounters that help the imagining of different paths, provoke changes and create new paths. Clara and Christopher's writing is a moment of past and future. A new thought, a fresh reflection on where we come from and how that can actually be something toward a new way of being, living and working. If I am part of the Earth, I am the Earth and I want to take care of it.