Where I was born in French Limousin, houses have underground cellars. “La cave” is where certain foodstuff and wine can be maintained fresh and alive for longer periods of time, in ideally dark and cool conditions. We need a flashlight to go down and get anything from there. Thanks to the flashlight, we uncover a whole ecosystem and its details: nicely aligned preserved fruit jars on wooden shelves; large boxes of potatoes, apples, and parsnips; aging Bordeaux bottles on racks; spiders; salamanders; fungi.

Something abstract is something that has a certain appearance, like the word “cellar” (the sound of it, or the graphic representation of its written letters), a symbol, or a Rothko painting. But that word or thing represents a whole world of more detailed and very concrete things that are contained in it, hidden from sight. We must unpack, unzip the file labeled with that name (word, sentence, icon) to uncover the world it represents, and see all its content.

In conversation, to clarify is to make clear. It is the process of unzipping a file, which is labeled with one word or string of words, and to direct light on all that is hidden behind that word, so that it all becomes visible. I mean this quite literally: we can then see things. What was abstract now appears as concrete and tangible. What was thought, now is form. Otherwise, the animals that we human beings are would not be able to relate to it or do anything with that file.

“Justice”, unaccompanied by its details, is an abstraction. So is “freedom” or “equity”. The truth is that any word can be an abstraction to some people. If you never saw a rose, not even in a picture, the word rose is an abstraction to you.

So, what on Earth is “sustainability”? Let’s make this concept so tangible that making it happen on the ground, for you, your organization, and the world, becomes child play.

Stay tuned as we unpack this abstraction in the next and all future episodes of Words for Sustainability.