This month, I attended an online symposium on nature. Fishermen and hunters spoke vividly about their experiences. They inspired me. And a fisherman who lives on an island shared with us that garbage washes up on the island. It shocked me.

He lives on the island which is designated as a national park and is located right at the entrance to the bay. The island receives 3,000 tons of garbage a year, including dead animals and lighthouses. Immediately I imagined a lighthouse lying on the beach in the morning. What do you think of it?

And he said that when he caught the best lobsters, he no longer wanted to wholesale them to the market because he could no longer ignore the unpleasure of being converted into money. Instead, he chose to send them to hunters who live upstream from the river that flows into the bay. He thought it should be the best option worth the effort of getting the best lobsters. Likewise, when the hunters caught the best boar, they sent it to the fishermen. I could sense respect for each other’s work.

They showed the essence of living with a few simple words and a lovely smile. Living upstream of a river means living in the mountains. And living downstream of a river means living in the sea. Their choices underline the river between them rather than both mountains and seas.

Everything is interconnected. They behave as if they made sense of it. And it was a beautiful time for me.