It’s been a little over a month since we started this school year in Finland. In the beginning of September us coordinators we met here in Vantaa in order to plan year 2 in ODDience2030.

The sun was shining, it was beautiful and warm. We enjoyed the city and the weather. We adored the flowers in Töölö park and had zero waste dinner in a zero waste restaurant.

The sun was shining until yesterday, and we are at the end of the month called the month of autumn in Finnish. It has been like summer. Summer for us in Finland means anything over 15 degrees Celsius, more or less sunny. We joke about having a good summer means not much snow. When hell freezes Finns button up their coats and put a hat on.  But now we have warm summers and warm Septembers. Soon we will have to find new jokes.

In ODDience2030 we are five cultures working together. We have the same goal and without a doubt we understand it a little bit differently. The outcomes are different but the same. I guess. How I see it, our goal is to find ways to bring up new generations with skills that are useful in a changing world. Our goal is to enhance the ability to work together, to think innovatively, creatively. We are, or we should be, seeking and clarifying what our core values are.

Values don’t change easily but they do change. Deep experiences tend to have an effect on a person’s thinking and therefore also values. Good and bad experiences.

It takes a lot of work to have a group of people agree on actions and steps and dates. It takes a lot of work to make sure everybody is on the same page. And we are educated people having the same goal. What is it when you disagree to start with, you dislike and mistrust each other? Negotiators of peace are wonder makers, it is so much harder to have people agree on something than to disagree.

Patience, the ability to hear and listen, these are qualities that negotiators need. We all do. In today’s world we don’t see much of those qualities and one might fall into despair. But let’s not.

And then came the heavy rain. It washes the earth and takes it down hill. Dirt roads become bumpy and newly made lawns flush away. I look out the window, in minutes everything changes from heavy rainfall into clear sunshine that disappears in the grey of the clouds.

It is predicted that our northern areas will somehow benefit from climate change. Crops will grow longer, some species will be able to come and live and prosper. Others will disappear. The summers will be longer. The winters will be warmer. The winters with snow might disappear and become endless dark rainy seasons.
Until the Gulf Stream stops and we freeze for good.

But let’s not lose faith.

I plant flowers for bees in my backyard. I give the flowers the compost I made from the leftovers of our food. I ride my bike, not a car. I foster an elephant, an orangutang, a Saimaa ringed seal and a child in Bangladesh. And I look out the window and think what will all this be for my grandkids. It will be different but it will a world good enough to live in.

ODDience2030 is in my mind more or less all the time. Which makes me talk about it and hopefully starts making changes in some else’s mind too.