The reality is, as I expressed in several previous articles, I am indeed furious that I have been detracted from focusing on the positive aspects of sustainable development and spend my time mainly highlighting the one immediate most important issue before our eyes - our intentionally forced dependence on oil so that just a few can enrich themselves and damn the rest of us.

Ideas about sustainable development are indeed surrounding us and staring in our face. They are meant to point us in the direction of a happy life - in effect the only way that allows us, the humans, and the rest of the planet, to coexist. Today I found such ideas hidden in plain site, in two letters to the New York Times.

We are used to the statement - “we are what we eat” but the two letters to the New York Times of today stress instead: “HOW We Eat Matters More Than We Think.”.

Peninnah Schram, a fascinating story teller by profession, whom I know personally, tries to give us very needed advice. I know her as a re-teller (or if you wish rather a retailer) of Hasidic stories which are life stories.

Here she writes: back in the 1940’s, her mother, a Jewish-Russian immigrant would tell her: “Eat everything, but a little of everything.” Now, with her own life experiences and wisdom, Peninnah, which in Hebrew means “pearl” - has her own pearls of wisdom: “Enjoy the food and also appreciate the food.”

What Peninnah means is: “For that, a brief blessing over the food allows us the moment to slow down and express that appreciation and wonder. In that way, not only do we nourish our bodies, but we also remember our relationship with the earth.” Now, if this is not a clear call to SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT I do not know what is.

The second letter, by Robert DiFerdinando from South Burlington, Vermont, goes even a little bit further. He says: “Enjoy your food, but also enjoy the social experience of eating!”

“Eat with friends. Don’t eat while walking, driving, snowboarding or anything else! Talk to your friends while you eat. Listen to trhe stories of their lives. If nothing more, the connections you make will be least as satisfying to your well-being as the food you are eating. I am betting that there will be a big payoff in terms of health.” I do not see here a three martinis power lunch or a rural feast on a quail shooting farm. I see here rather an attempt to tell us how to go about a sustainable life pattern that helps us without creating harm to others.

In the light of what goes on in today’s world, could we try to attempt at least our own personal return to the sanity prescibed in above two letters? Our reward will be at least a healthier heart! And that is nothing to shoot at!