

The growing climate crisis and pandemic have put the need for a green “new deal” in the air. A modest lifestyle in tune with the cycles of nature in 2020 is news to many, but not to my grandfather. The emerging trends of sustainability and slow life have not changed his daily habits, as he has always been true to them. As he does every year, he prepares geranium seedlings, fully aware of the power of nature that man must pay respect to. The ban on leaving his property during a pandemic has not impressed him either - he, through an eye disease - has for years felt most comfortable within the confines of his yard. For the odd spring shutdown of 2020, I decided to return from Warsaw to my family home. It is in my 82-year-old grandfather, with whom I have lived most of my life under one roof, that I find, with amazement and afresh, the answer to what our future should look like.