Literature and Storytelling as Inspiration

Literature and stories create a prerequisite for understanding other people's living conditions and feelings and are not only about the past but also about the present and future. Literature searches for the truth about the future as the natural scientific climate models do in the various conceivable future calculations and scenarios, also called storylines. The UN's Ocean Decade aims to break the negative trend that is taking place in and around the ocean today and to create the conditions for sustainable development. A paradigm shift is required, from exploiting the ocean in an unsustainable way to serving the sea, that is, uniting humans and the ocean in a new relationship, similar to when King Odysseus and Queen Penelope join after many years and form the perfect union that guarantees vitality and progress. The Odyssey by Homer, one of the greatest adventures in world literature, can be read as a metaphor for a human's violent lifestyle, and Penelope as a metaphor for the ocean's resources. Only when these poles can meet and unite are conditions for sustainable development possible.